Will's Word: Are rising fuel prices hurting our economic recovery?

You do have to feel for the National Party, at least on some level.

This was meant to be the year things started to turn. The year they could point to and say, here it is, this is the economic recovery we’ve been talking about.

But global events have a way of cutting across even the best laid plans. The situation in Iran is dragging on and fuel prices are climbing.

To be fair, none of this is of the Government’s making. When National came into office after the 2023 election, they didn't exactly inherit a 'rockstar economy'.

Instead, they were given high interest rates, stubborn inflation, and an economy already under pressure. They promised to fix it, but those kinds of turnarounds don’t happen overnight, right?

There were early signs this year that things might be heading in the right direction. But now Treasury is warning rising fuel costs could push inflation back up to around 3.7 per cent. Some economists think even that may be too optimistic.

Listen to Will's Word below.

Then you layer on the reality that people are already facing. Food prices up 4.5 per cent in the year to February, with basics like mince jumping more than 20 per cent. For many households, the cost-of-living crisis hasn’t eased at all.

And that’s where things get tricky.

Because heading into the next election, it’s not enough to say, give us more time. Voters will be asking, where’s the proof? Where’s the relief? Where’s the change we were promised?

Right now, National can point to a difficult global backdrop, and that’s valid. But it doesn’t necessarily make the sell any easier.