Our Outcomes and Vision
Overview
The Treasury's three outcomes are Improved Economic Performance, a High-Performing State Sector that Supports New Zealand's International Competitiveness and a Stable and Sustainable Macroeconomic Environment. These are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. For example, restraint in spending is one of the strongest levers available to government right now to support growth. This supports rebalancing toward an economy capable of delivering stronger sustained increases in performance. Spending restraint right now also contains macroeconomic risks that could quickly reverse New Zealand's growth prospects.
At the same time State sector spending delivers important services to New Zealanders and influences New Zealand's attractiveness as a place to live and do business. A productive State sector provides quality services within finite resources. At roughly one-third of the economy, the State sector also makes an important contribution to New Zealand's productivity. Over the longer term, to grow the level of services sustainably requires productivity and the finances generated by a growing economy.
Our vision is to be a world class Treasury working towards higher living standards for New Zealanders. All of our work within our three outcomes aims to advance this vision. Further work on the Treasury's living standards vision will help guide how we approach our work within the three outcomes and will be more fully advanced in our next Statement of Intent. We expect further work in this area to highlight trade-offs as well as synergies.
- The Relationship Between Socio-economic Background and Educational Performance
- Source: OECD
Our concept of living standards includes economic, human, social and environmental dimensions. We take account of both the current and future standard of living, to ensure resources are managed efficiently and sustainably. We also consider how key factors influencing living standards are distributed across the population, and how opportunities can be promoted for those most dis-advantaged. The Treasury tracks growth in real median household wealth and income, levels of reported crime and victimisation, subjective wellbeing, growth in healthy life years and social mobility for children in low-decile households. We track social mobility through the high impact of parents' socio-economic status on children's educational performance in New Zealand.
The factors we track are all key components of living standards, and can all be improved through a well-performing economy, cost-effective government interventions and reduced macroeconomic vulnerability.
