‘Dependence’ deplored

Press, 15 June 1983, Page 4

‘Dependence’ deplored

Young New Zealanders had conditioned themselves to a totally dependent,economy, said the Leader of the Mr Lange, yesterday; He told the Christchurch Lions Club that New Zealand’s living standards were heavily supported by high overseas borrowing, which resulted in an estimated indebtedness of $l5 billion —; about $5OOO for every person,’ or $13,600 for each person in. the work-force. “l am not saying for a moment that New Zealand should not borrow overseas — it is that we have borrowed too much, and we havp squandered the time given to us by those borrowed funds,” he said.

In the last year the number of jobs in the economy fell by- more than 8000, yet 25,000 people were added to the potential labour force each year. Mr Lange said this meant

that living standards would fall further, and that the production potential ..of. those people would be lost forever; ’ - .:

There were few signs of growth, and the Government’s policies offered no prospects for eliminating the current deficit, he said.

The long-run external imbalance had to be reduced; dramatically. Mr Lange said it was not necessary to run a surplus because of net private capital inflow, but continued $2 billion deficits were “not on.”