Foreign aid

New Zealand

to be cut

New Zealand’s foreign aid is to be cut by three per cent in the 1992-93 financial year. The total value of New Zealand aid will be 5U577.4 million. More than 60 per cent of the aid will go to South Pacific countries, and the bulk of that to countries which New Zealand had constitutional or treaty obligations with. These are Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and Western Samoa. Foreign minister Don Mckinnon said New Zealand would also be doing more in Asia with an increase in allocation for China, and to double the allocation for Cambodia and Vietnam. □ ***

Power

crisis

The electricity shortage in New Zealand is being tipped to slow the country’s recovery from economic recession. A private forecasting group, Infometrics, predicts the power crisis will mean a net 0.17 per cent loss of gross domestic product during the year to March 1993.

Infometrics said this would slow growth from the 3.5 per cent rate which it had been predicting before. However, the group also sees a worst-case scenario of power conservation measures trimming electricity use by 15 per cent. □