New Zealanders’ confidence in our economy has hit a record low, with Kiwis across the country feeling the crush of mounting pressures on their household budgets, National’s Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey released this morning fell in December to the lowest recorded since the survey began. Earlier this week the Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence survey also recorded its lowest ever level of confidence.

“The increasing costs of food, household bills and mortgages are all contributing to a bleak outlook for the coming year,” Ms Willis says.

“This year’s Christmas will be tough for many families. Kiwis across the country are looking at these rising costs and wondering how they are going to make them all add up.

“The surveys this week from ANZ and Westpac show how consistent this feeling of economic malaise is, with confidence tumbling across the board and the Government failing to show any light at the end of the tunnel.

"Instead of presenting a plan to reduce inflation and strengthen the economy, Labour Ministers have been distracted by pet projects such as Three Waters reform, the TVNZ-RNZ merger and hate speech laws.

"The Reserve Bank has instead been left to do the economic clean up job after the massive money-printing of recent years - cranking interest rates faster than ever before, meaning already struggling Kiwis will next year have much higher debt costs to contend with.

“National would rein in wasteful spending that's adding fuel to the inflation fire, stop adding new costs and taxes, refocus the Reserve Bank on price stability, address worker shortages and let Kiwis keep more of what they earn."