New Zealand’s Willis Confident About Economic Turnaround (1)

New Zealand Finance Minister Nicola Willis expressed optimism about the country’s economy, saying she was confident it had returned to growth last quarter as interest-rate cuts help boost sentiment.

“When it comes to the fundamentals, inflation back in band and interest rates are coming down, we are there,” Willis said at the Bloomberg Address in Auckland on Friday. “We’ve had some growth returning and we want to see that sustained. All of my forecasters tell me I should be confident.”

This week, the Reserve Bank delivered a larger-than-expected 50 basis-point rate cut to take the benchmark to 2.5% and said ...