NZ is not Australia, but could be their lucky neighbour

Dr Bollard said New Zealand could improve its prospects by taking advantage of Australia’s very strong future growth potential. “Australia is a lucky country, but we could be a lucky neighbour.”

Australia is entering a new minerals boom, investing heavily and encouraged by new finds, re-opening markets, bottlenecks and strong prices. Strong investment and export growth would mean big challenges for Australian policy. “This all means an economy that looks less like New Zealand.”

“New Zealand and Australia have very different resource endowments, financial markets treat us like Australia, but actually we are quite different. We talk about catching up with Australian incomes, but we have better chances of taking advantage of their growth.”