"The Three year cycle": an analysis of economic fluctuations in post-war New Zealand

Abstract

In recent years considerable discussion and contorversy has been aroused in New Zealand over the causes of what the Minister of Finance referred to as "a traditional cycle of boom, crisis and contraction" "Economic Survey 1963" p.29. These periodic booms in economic activity and spending resulting in a balance of payments crisis appear to have become a recurrent feature of the New Zealand economic scene. Debate over the issue has become an issue of considerable public importance, particularly regarding ascribed causal factors and measures taken by the various Administrations to deal with the problem. The Monetary and Economic Council, for instance, in its second report referred to the "triennial economic crisis with which New Zealanders are becoming increasingly familiar" and thought that "the fact that serious economic deterioration has tended to occur in the election years is not purely a coincidence" "Economic Growth in New Zealand" Monetary and Economic Council Report No. 2. p.84 Wellington, New Zealand 1962.