Quick & New: New Zealand is moving past economic growth
While most countries base their annual budget on the economic benefits and the impact on growth and productivity, New Zealand takes another route.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Adern is breaking new ground with the federal budget. While the allocation of funds is otherwise geared to the potential for economic growth and productivity gains, the New Zealand budget is geared to new parameters.
New guidelines for the budget make it clear that all new expenditures must address five identified problem areas: Reducing child poverty, improving mental health, reducing inequalities faced by indigenous peoples such as the Maori, adapting to a digitalised world and transforming towards a sustainable low-carbon economy.
In this way, Adern wants to lead New Zealand into a time in which the well-being of the people is the focus of government action. The long-term goal here is supposed to be the realisation of a subsistence economy.
See the full article here: The London Economic