 The top marginal tax rate was halved over a number of years from 66% to 33%, and the standard rate was reduced from 42% in 1978 to 28% in 1988.To compensate, the variable sales taxes that had been in effect until then were replaced by a single Goods and Services Tax, initially set at 10%, later 12.5% (and eventually in 2011, 15%), and a surtax on superannuation, which had been made universal from age 60 by the previous government.New Zealand's leap into the neoliberalist global economy exposed both businesses and the wider workforce to the unregulated predatory practices of private capital - this led to a decade of insignificant (and sometimes negative) growth with the "economic miracle" being experienced by only a relatively small proportion of the population.