An a-peel to the data

A banana republic without the bananas?

New Zealand is a small trading nation. We are wont to benchmark our economic performance against that of other trading countries. That always seems like an eminently sensible thing to do.

From time to time, the economic commentariat decrys New Zealand’s dismal economic performance, adding “New Zealand is becoming a banana republic.”

The reference to a banana republic was famously made by our former Prime Minister, Mike Moore: “we risk becoming a banana republic without the bananas”. He cannot however claim originality, as the term banana republic was first coined by the American author O. Henry in 1904 to describe Honduras and Costa Rica.

Wishing for banana republic performance

For many years I have wished that if only we could perform as well as the banana republics. But I had rarely troubled myself to check the data. Until today that is. I reminded myself that an important role of the economics profession is to provide solid evidence for the underpinnings of informed public debate on key economic issues of the day.

Empirical musing¹

So I did the sums … and I am pleased to report that those politicians and media commentators who constantly compared us to a banana republic were on to something. The annual GDP growth rates of the world’s top ten leading banana exporters would be a useful goal to which we might well aspire.²

Real annual GDP growth rates (%) in the world’s 10 leading banana exporting countries compared with New Zealand

And for a better climate!

So I hope you will join with me in promoting a movement for New Zealand to become a banana republic. Not only would be richer if we could have the average growth rates of the banana republics, but their climate is a whole lot better too. Does this a-peel to you?

By Grant M Scobie

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Based on an article in Asymmetric Information 9 (November 2000), long-time-forthcoming in the Journal of Inconsequential Issues, and entered for Asymmetric Information’s 2023 spoof economics paper competition.³

Getting slightly tropical … Great Barrier Island. Dave Heatley

1. Musa is one of two or three genera in the family Musaceae. The genus includes flowering plants producing edible bananas.

2. Data sources: top ten banana exporters and annual GDP Growth data.

3. Entries are open for the Asymmetric Information great spoof paper competition until June 2023.

Announcing the great spoof paper competition