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Story: Investment

Private and public investment 1972–2007

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The top graph shows the much faster growth of private investment over public investment in the two decades after the mid 1980s. The bottom graph presents this trend directly by showing the proportion of private investment to all investment during those years. By the mid-1990s over 85% of the investment was private, although this dropped in the new millennium, following the different policies of the Labour government which invested in public assets such as hospitals.

Using this item

Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Source: Statistics New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Brent Layton, Investment – Public and private investment after 1980, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/24123/private-and-public-investment-1972-2007 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Brent Layton, published 3 March 2010.

Comments

Dan Rogers
03 October 2016
Either one or both graphs are incorrect. The bottom graph shows that private investment as a % of total investment falls or goes flat from 1995 to 2007. The top graph shows private investment growing faster (steeper curve) than public investment. Both graphs can not be accurate.