As Roger Childs mentioned in his article, NZ at present fortunately has a low debt to GDP ratio, thanks to good economic management by both the last National Government and the present Finance Minister Grant Roberston, who has resisted a big spending splurge.
A ranking of all countries’ debt to GDP ratios is on this webpage. Surprisingly, perhaps, the list is topped by Japan at 238%; the second, Greece, is no surprise, however.
I didn’t regard the Key government as good economic managers. “North and South” published an article on Key’s legacy and highlighted (from memory) NZ’s debt went from $16 billion in 2008 to about $60 billion in 2016. NZ was constantly in trade deficit (export/imports). Not that I’m sure about the present government’s performance, now blurred by Covid response. Grant Robertson seems competent though? In fact I’m a swinging voter, totally unsure who to give my party vote to next election.
REAL TIME USA:
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
REAL TIME WORLD:
https://commodity.com/debt-clock/