New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key has won an historic third term in an election which took place on Saturday September 20th, 2014. Mr. Key’s National party won 60 seats in Parliament leaving his party one seat shy of a governing majority. “I think people saw the country was on the right direction and they rewarded us” Prime Minister Key said at a victory rally on September 20th, referring to the economic growth and success that the country has seen under National party leadership. According to Bloomberg, New Zealand’s Gross domestic product increased 3.9% from last year’s comparison.
GDP is defined as the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country borders in a specific time period, though GDP is usually calculated on an annual basis. GDP is a key element for determining the health of a country’s economy.
“What you saw was people saying that they were going to vote for the future of the country and the issues that mattered and not be distracted”, Prime Minister Key went onto say in his victory speech on Saturday.
With 100 percent of the results completed however, the National Party has won 47 % of the vote or a total of 60 seats (leaving it one seat shy of a majority), the Labor Party winning 25% of the vote or 32 seats, the Green Party with 11 percent of the vote and 14 seats and the New Zealand First Party at 9 percent or 11 seats. The loss of the majority by the National Party means that Prime Minister Key will now have to form a coalition within the government.
Prime Ministers Key Party has promised to continue in a fiscally conservative manner by limiting the amount of money the government spends and continuing with tax cuts.
“Our mandate hasn’t changed.” “The priorities that we have this afternoon are the same we had yesterday”, David Seymour said, who is ACT party leader and one of the parties that the National Party will have to form a governing coalition with.
However even with the success of the economy, there are some who believe that the economy is in what economist call a bubble and some fear that bubble will soon burst. Some factors that may contribute to New Zealand’s economic prosperity bursting include 1) Interest rates have been at all-time lows for a half decade, 2) Property prices have doubled since 2004, just to name a few factors which may lead to New Zealand’s economic bubble bursting.
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