Exploration ban may cut GDP by $38 billion - NZIER

Exploration ban may cut GDP by $38 billion - NZIER
Gavin Evans
By Gavin Evans Feb. 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government’s ban on new offshore exploration will reduce the country’s GDP by between $15 billion and $38 billion, raise prices and reduce investment during the next 30 years, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research estimates. While the ban’s impact will be felt most keenly in Taranaki, the impact on the national economy is “strongly negative”, the institute says. Employment in, and exports from, other regions improve, but those “few and incidental’ benefits are “dwarfed” by the scale of...