Finance Minister English says soaring prison population as big a risk as world interest rates

Fri, 11 Nov 2016

By Fiona Rotherham Nov. 11 (BusinessDesk) - Finance Minister Bill English says the government’s whole balance sheet of nearly $300 billion of assets is almost as exposed to changes in the forecast of prisoner numbers as it is to world interest rates. Speaking at the annual meeting of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds being hosted in Auckland yesterday, English said the understanding of risk in the public sector has been very “undercooked”. When looking at the sensitivity of on-going operating expenses and capital invest...

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