NZ stimulus package to boost faltering economy

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WELLINGTON, Nov 26 (AP): New Zealand will spend about $3.8 billion on stimulus measures in the next two years to try to lift the country out of recession, the new government said Wednesday.
Finance Minister Bill English said the seven billion New Zealand dollars would be allocated to new infrastructure spending, providing financial aid to workers hit by layoffs as the economy slows and includes tax cuts planned for April.
The measures were among the campaign promises made by Prime Minister John Key before he was elected to power earlier this month, though the cost has not previously been announced.
New Zealand slipped into recession earlier this year for the first time in a decade, and the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned in its latest repot that the economy will remain in recession through 2009, with only modest recovery projected in the middle of 2010.