An economist says the Government is likely to bring forward the resumption of payments into the New Zealand Superannuation Fund even earlier than 2019.
In Tuesday's economic and fiscal update, the Government said it would start paying into the fund a year earlier than previously signalled.
BNZ head of market economics Stephen Toplis says the rapidly improving government surpluses make it likely the Government will make earlier payments into the fund.
He says it's highly likely the contributions will be brought forward again.
But Mr Toplis says the danger with the process as it's currently set up is that governments will tend to make contributions to that fund at the peaks of economic cycles. That is problematic for the fund because it means it is investing at the peak where as investments should be made in the troughs.
He says if there is a political decision to maintain that fund then there should be more consistent contributions irrespective of the stage of the cycle.
The then newly elected National-led Government suspended payments into the New Zealand Superannuation Fund in 2009, saying continuing contributions would have added $19.5 billion to the nation's debt through to 2020.
In the 10 years since it was established, the fund has earned 9.13% a year on average, taking the fund's value in September this year to $23.93 billion.