Economy of New Zealand
The economy of New Zealand is a liberal market economy, while the traditional industry is barely pronounced with emphasis on tourism and agriculture. One of the few examples of industrial production is the license - vehicle Trekka.
Currency
The official currency in the country is New Zealand Dollars (also called " Kiwi dollar "; NZD NZ $ ), which is divided into 100 cents ( ct ). This replaced the British pound sterling in 1967. From this point, the units used in the decimal system in New Zealand. Since 1999, the Kiwi dollar is according to the Australian Dollar the second currency of the earth, using the plastic money; all bills are made of polypropylene. In August 2006, smaller coins were introduced because of rising material costs and likelihood of confusion; valid until this date 50 cent coin, for example, counted with a diameter of 3.2 centimeters of the largest coins of the earth.
Economic Development
Until the first half of the 20th century, New Zealand was an agricultural country, where the majority of the population in the primary sector was active. By far the most important trading partner was the United Kingdom, in which about half of the produced in New Zealand mostly agricultural goods was exported. With the EU accession of Great Britain in 1973, the economic situation of the country changed fundamentally. In the same year New Zealand finally met also the worldwide oil crisis of 1973. As a result of these extremely negative influences plunged the country into a deep economic crisis. It took until 1984 until the government took greater measures.
From this point on, New Zealand developed from a steered economy with focus on agriculture to a liberalized industrial nation with a free market that can compete with other Western nations, and is one of the most deregulated and privatized economies in the world. Numerous subsidies to agriculture were concerning, deleted, further, the entire movement of goods has been liberalized and abandoned the voice of the state in regard to wages, interest rates and prices for goods and services. Through a frugal fiscal policies and major efforts to reduce the budget deficit, the inflation rate of 18 % in 1987 to 3.9 % in 2005 could be reduced. In addition, nearly all state-owned enterprises have been restructured and privatized in the 1980s and 1990s. An example of this is the entire train service, which is operated since 1995 by Tranz Rail (due to the poor condition of the tracks and stations was at least the rail system in 2004 but re-nationalized again), or the New Zealand Telecom. Through the intensive liberalization policy, unemployment rose in the country to new highs. The unemployment rate rose due to various measures in the short term, although up to 15 %, the end of 2004, however, it was only 3.6%, the lowest in the OECD. The inflation rate was 2.4%, economic growth was from July 2003 to June 2004 of 4.4%. Since many reforms because of the small population of the country could be implemented quickly, this led to an unexpected economic boom in New Zealand. One of the reasons that dampen the economic recovery, are inadequate infrastructure ( rail transport, energy supply). After 1998 in the north of the country broke down the power grid for 66 days, former state-owned enterprises were gradually nationalized again, among other things, the bankrupt airline Air New Zealand. The government in 2008, the web of the Australian company Toll Holdings also decided to repurchase for the equivalent of 336 million euros. The New Zealand Finance Minister Michael Cullen said: "The sale of state-owned railway in the early 90s and then following the decline of the assets was a painful lesson for New Zealand ".
Mineral resources
New Zealand is relatively poor in natural resources. In metals, only iron sand, gold and silver will be mined. Although the country also has bauxite, copper, chromite, cinnabar, cassiterite, ilmenite, scheelite and uranium deposits, they are not no more degraded or, either because the reserves are too low or because the import is cheaper. Of fossil fuels New Zealand has lignite and coal deposits, which dominates in the North Island coal, the South Island has both forms. Overall, the country has 8.6 billion tons of lignite, of which about one third is mainly in existing mines in the South Island. The lignite is more than three-quarters of the total resources. The most important oil and gas fields are located in the Taranaki Basin in the Tasman Sea near the town of New Plymouth. About half of the natural gas flows into the petrochemical sector and is used for example for the production of synthetic gasoline, a quarter is used for energy production, and the rest goes to households and companies. Moreover, even clay mineral and limestone are mined.
Agriculture
Since the beginning of European settlement agriculture in the form of sheep farming is a mainstay of the New Zealand society. First served exclusively as sheep wool supplier, since the 1880s, when the export by cooling vessel was possible to additionally as a meat supplier. Meanwhile, New Zealand had witnessed in the second half of the 19th century a gold rush in the South Island and an economic crisis because of slumping wool prices. However, agriculture has remained for a long time the most important economic sector. The most important agricultural area is the cattle today. 2008 lived 5.3 million dairy cows in New Zealand, 90 % of dairy products are exported, so that New Zealand has long been the world's largest exporter of dairy products. Beef production in New Zealand is also a world leader, about 4 million beef cattle are currently living on the islands. In addition to animal husbandry and fruit and vegetable play a major role in the New Zealand agriculture. Within the 20th century, the cultivation of four crops was started in New Zealand, which were brought to the world market with varying degrees of success: Macadamiapflanzen, culture blueberry and avocado trees and Kiwisträucher. Among them, the kiwi fruit was undoubtedly the most successful. This originally from China plant has been cultivated since the 1980s in other parts of the world in a big way. So is today (2008) Italy's largest producer of kiwi fruit and displaced New Zealand to China in third place. Most important trading partner for dairy products, fruit and fruit, despite the large distances the UK. A large proportion of deforested areas is used as pasture.
See also: Viticulture in New Zealand
Tourism
Of particular importance to the New Zealand economy is tourism. So gave in 2002, according to official figures from the New Zealand Ministry of Tourism foreign tourists over 6.1 billion NZ dollars in the country. Directly or indirectly depends estimated by the New Zealand Government from every tenth job in the country from tourism.
The basis of the New Zealand tourism, the diversity of landscapes - coastal, lakes and fjords, mountains and glaciers, volcanoes and hot springs - which as lush as alien vegetation in the Bush as Tussockgrass -country, the National Park on the North and South Island, in the forest areas, such as in the high mountains, the well-developed infrastructure, and open-minded residents of New Zealand.
New Zealand has more than two million tourists a year and is often considered a clean and green adventure playground (English: clean, green adventure playground ) called. Until some years ago, the average New Zealand holiday was a backpacker or bungee jumpers. Although the adventure tourism still plays an extremely significant role in the New Zealand travel industry has been trying for some time now reinforced by short breakers with a high budget, who see themselves as " interactive travelers ". The days of European adventure tourists are not counted, but there is a clear tendency towards a " luxurious New Zealand ". So far by Qualmark, New Zealand's official evaluation service for accommodation, over 160 hotels awarded five stars. This development is in the circles of adventure travelers and backpackers, however, more and more criticism as the country continues going to an all-inclusive vacation destination supposedly. While it is not expected that tourism in New Zealand decreases in the next few years, but much less adventurous vacationers will visit the country probably in a few years.
The New Zealand government issued (also known as Work & Travel visa ) for many citizens of Western countries a " working holiday visa". With this visa are travelers ( 18-30 years) entitled to reside for twelve months in the country and work. This visa is used by many Europeans and North Americans to take several months of travel through the country and in between supplement with jobs such as harvesters travel funds.
A German national may reside as a normal tourist up to three months without a visa in the country. Up to nine month stay is possible with a "Visitor Visa ". A new entry is allowed but only after a waiting period equal to the last period of stay.
Most tourists arrive at the international airports in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown. The most popular destinations are Rotorua, the Waitomo Caves, the Coromandel Peninsula, the fjord country with the Milford Sound, Queenstown, Auckland, Bay of Islands, Dunedin and the Hawke 's Bay.
Foreign trade
After the EU accession of Great Britain and the consequent drop in demand for agricultural products New Zealand had to look for new markets. Meanwhile, Australia, China, Japan and the East Asian tigers, the main trading partner of the country. The economic crisis in East Asia in 1998/99 has therefore also New Zealand fairly hard hit. New Zealand for a long time has a negative trade balance, which represents about eight percent of the total gross domestic product. All of New Zealand exports amounted in 2005 to 29.2 billion U.S. dollars, the total imports to 35.8 billion U.S. dollars. The most important export industries of the country are the agriculture, horticulture, fishing and forestry. Furthermore, New Zealand has significant manufacturing tourism and service industries. Major import products are automobiles, tractors, other technical equipment as well as medical products. Germany takes as import partner with a share of 5.2 percent in fifth place.
Australia is primarily in economic terms, the most important partner of New Zealand. Thus, between the two countries since 1983, 24 million people comprehensive free trade area with the name of Closer Economic Relations, which was opened in the following years further and extended to almost all economic sectors. In the future, a common internal market reality to be and, for example, taxes are unified.
Since 2000, with Singapore, there is a free trade agreement. This has been extended to Chile and Brunei in 2005 and is now under the name of P4 Agreement ( P4 Agreement) known. New Zealand continues to search for similar agreements in the Pacific. Since 2005, negotiations on a free trade zone with China be performed.
Energy supply
About 75% of the electricity needs of New Zealand is covered by renewable energies. While at 67 % (1998 ) lying share of hydropower is produced mainly in the South Island, is the energy through geothermal, which is about 6.5% (1998), limited exclusively to the North Island. The largest fossil fuel is natural gas, which covers about 22 % (1998 ) of the electricity consumption. Other important fuels are coal (mostly lignite) and mine gases. Although the country has its own gas fields, New Zealand is not independent of other funding areas of the world, since most of the oil has to be imported as fuel for cars. An increasingly important role in addition to the solar energy and energy from biomass and wind energy.
In the 1960s, although there were plans to build nuclear power plants in New Zealand, but they were finally discarded in 1972 after the discovery of large deposits of coal and gas fields. In the following decades, hydropower became more and more developed, and New Zealand became a "model country " with a green, clean image. The increase in consumption was compensated over the years with the expansion of gas-fired power plants. However, since New Zealand's natural gas reserves are finite, hydropower is relatively exploited and environmental reasons, reluctant to even more carbon is used, considerations, according to reconsider the rules applicable to New Zealand, enshrined in law since 1987 status of a " nuclear-free zone 'and the establishment of a to build small nuclear reactor north of Auckland, which suffers some of them already under energy deficiency.
The total electricity consumption in New Zealand is about 37 TWh. The average energy consumption per capita amounts to relatively high 9088.0 kWh (compared to Germany: 6742.0 kWh, as of each 2002), which is partly due to the - for Central European conditions - very low electricity prices ( 13.5 NZct / kWh, compared to Germany: 24.3 NZct / kWh, as of 1998, respectively ) can be attributed.