The best way to prevent damage to the country’s economy from Covid-19 is to seriously increase the number of people who are vaccinated, an economics expert believes.
Martin Berka, the head of Massey University’s school of economics and finance, said if the vaccination rate was much higher, the country was less likely to go into lockdown, which wouldn’t affect the economy as heavily.
New Zealand’s economy recovered from a large lockdown when Covid-19 first hit last year and he believed it would recover from this one as well, but business confidence may suffer.
“We can give people the [wage] subsidy for a period of time. Eventually people are going to close their business or take it overseas.”
Vaccine roll out is also critical for New Zealand’s future opening up. Since 2020 border closures have affected two of New Zealand’s largest economic contributing sectors, export education and international tourism costing the country billions in foreign currency.
