Politicians love comparing NZ’s economy to Singapore or Ireland – but it’s simplistic and misleading

Canva, The Conversation, CC BY-NC

Unveiling Amazon Web Services’ long-awaited NZ$7.5 billion “cloud region” – a cluster of local data centres – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon specifically referenced Ireland and Singapore as “two economies we often look to for inspiration on investment and technology”.

This kind of comparison has been a familiar refrain in New Zealand politics. More than a decade ago, then prime minister John Key imagined the country as the “Switzerland of the South Pacific”.