24 Jan 2014

World economic problems 'waning'

6:42 pm on 24 January 2014

Finance Minister Bill English says the woes that have been plaguing the world's biggest economies are easing.

Mr English is at the annual World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, where heads of state and some 1600 leaders of the world's top companies are meeting.

Bill English.

Bill English. Photo: RNZ

He said he is seeing guarded optimism the economic problems which have persisted since the 2007 start of the global financial crisis are waning.

Mr English told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme on Friday countries such as Japan and the United States may now consider an end to some stimulus measures, such as printing money.

"There does seem to me more of a focus now moving away from worrying about what the reserve banks are doing to focusing on the things we've been focusing on for a while.

"And that is, getting the skills for people to handle the digitising economy, making sure that your economy has got good regulation so it can run efficiently."

Mr English says as developed economies begin to grow again, stimulus measure are no longer relevant.