New Zealand Government Reconsiders Big Projects To Maintain Budget Surplus

It's like peeking through the looking glass

The New Zealand's government's margin-of-error target to meet an operating surplus by 2015 has put spending on its biggest programmes under the gun, according to Finance Minister Bill English.

The government plans to keep its spending programme in check as the deteriorating global economy puts its budget surplus at risk, singling out "long-term drivers of costs in areas such as welfare, health, education and law and order," according to the English's budget.

"The forecast surplus of $66 million is not large," English told a media briefing in Wellington. "The need for control does not expire once we get into surplus."