New Zealand's opposition plans to restore the central bank's employment mandate and return the budget to surplus by 2029/30. Venezuela's assembly adviser has drafted a bill to replace the bolivar with the dollar and close the central bank.
New Zealand Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the party would restore the central bank's dual mandate, which the governing coalition removed in 2023. Employment would again sit beside price stability in monetary policy. Labour also plans to return the budget to surplus in the 2029/30 fiscal year and establish an independent budget office to scrutinise public finances and election promises.[1]
The plan would reduce net public debt to 20 per cent of GDP. Once the capital gains tax is fully operating, government spending and revenue would be held near 33 per cent of GDP. Edmonds said the surplus target would use the conventional OBEGAL measure, while wellbeing reporting would return to public-finance assessments. Nicola Willis, speaking for the government, argued that the package meant more spending, borrowing and taxation.[1]
Venezuela's assembly has appointed economist Steve Hanke as a special adviser. His draft bill would replace the bolivar with the US dollar and close the central bank; he puts its chance of approval at 50 per cent to 80 per cent. Inflation is running at about 400 per cent, and the bolivar has lost 78 per cent against the dollar over the past year. Debt of roughly 250 billion dollars equals 150 per cent of GDP. Hanke previously advised Ecuador's dollarisation in 2000.[2]
