With regards to employment, though the jobless rate is still high, it is on a downward path and in the first quarter of the year it stood at 8.7 percent, down from 10.9 percent in 2003. For comparison, the lowest unemployment rate in the past 15 years was 6.3 percent in 1995.
Total CPI inflation is expected to average just over 1 1/2 per cent from mid-2006 to mid-2007 with the reduction in the GST lowering the inflation rate by 0.6 percentage points over this period - and then return to the 2 per cent target and remain there through the projection period.