New Zealand's Balance of Payments: A Study of Corrective Techniques for Short-Term Fluctuations

Abstract

Section I discusses the circumstances which have led to Government’s concern with balance of payments difficulties as such, and considers the general approach to dealing with such difficulties. Section II discusses the problem of forecasting New Zealand’s external exchange transactions. The first chapter is concerned with methods of approach to the problem, and the remainder develop the method which is considered most suitable for the immediate future. Section III is concerned with the various method of dealing with short-term balance of payments fluctuations. The early chapters in this section set out some of the major characteristics of each type of corrective, and later chapters compare the various measures in the light of a number of desiderata, such as speed of operation, effects on employment, effects on real national income. In Section IV certain conclusions are drawn from the preceding discussion, and implications for policy and administration briefly considered. Note: The paper is concerned solely with New Zealand’s overall balance of payments, and does not deal with the special problems that arise from limitations on the convertibility of sterling.