HYEFU: Robertson keeps it simple and conservative

HYEFU: Robertson keeps it simple and conservative
Grant Robertson briefs media on the budget strategy for election year. (Image: BusinessDesk)
Pattrick Smellie
Like Tommies in the trenches in the dying days on the western front, journalists, Treasury officials and various hangers-on assembled this morning for the last set-piece economic announcement of the year: the half-year economic and fiscal update and the 2023 budget policy statement.Known by the usual unwieldy acronyms, the HYEFU and the BPS are interesting for only two questions this year: how bad does the Treasury think the recession will be and how will the government seek to win an election when that recession is at its worst?Anyone hoping f...

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