Minister forecasts more jobs as growth continues

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 3

Minister forecasts more jobs as growth continues

PA Wellington Conditions were right for sustained economic growth, said the Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, in Hamilton yesterday. In an address to Waikato University students, Mr Birch forecast more jobs, a big step forward in New Zealand’s fuel sufficiency, and the start of the “pay off’ from the “think big” projects. After restructuring, New Zealand, with its diversified range of efficiently produced products, was better able to trade on world markets, Mr Birch said. As a result, New Zealand was entering a period of consistent growth. He predicted 13,500 more jobs each year compared with a rate of 8000 annually between 1978 and 1983. Mr Birch said the Planning Council estimated that

that would be 108,000 new jobs between 1985 and 1988 — at a time when the workforce growth would be about 87,000. In these three years the “think big” projects would start producing and contributing foreign exchange to the economy, he said. The energy-based projects this year generated 10,000

on-site construction jobs, and for every person on site, two to three were employed on off-Site activities. Mr Birch said that the consensus among economic forecasting bodies was that gross domestic product would be about 1 per cent this year. It would pick up to about 2.5 per cent next year, and reach an average 3 per cent by the end of the decade, after peaking during the mid-1980s. In a period of just eight yfears, New Zealand would have increased its selfsufficiency in liquid fuels from 10 per cent to 60 per cent. “These developments, and the foreign exchange saving resulting from gas reticulation, mean that almost $lOOO million of foreign exchange will be saved from 1987, increasing to $1.2 billion by 1992.” Mr Birch said.