New Zealand’s Minister of Finance Grant Robertson says the country is “well positioned” to withstand a turbulent time as the Dollar declines, while inflation is forecast to remain elevated for longer.

The New Zealand Dollar has fallen 19% over the last six months against the U.S. Dollar and continued to fall on Tuesday.

The Finance Minister said that in this situation "imported goods potentially can cost a little bit more". However, exporters were "potentially going to be able to make greater profits. But it's a very volatile and uncertain situation,” RNZ reports.

He added that the U.S. Treasury’s interest rate decisions were "leading a lot of those who speculate on currencies back to the U.S. Dollar. That has an impact on virtually every currency in the world, including the New Zealand Dollar.

"Global uncertainty and turbulence is challenging and difficult for the New Zealand economy,” Robertson added.

Nevertheless, the Finance Minister said New Zealand was well-placed to endure volatility.

"We've got low unemployment, low public debt, we've had reasonable economic growth over the period of Covid and we're as well positioned as anybody is coming out of there, but it doesn't stop it being challenging for people.

"So we've got to continue to work with our exporters, our importers, work with New Zealand families and households to get through what is a turbulent time,” he stated.

He went on to add that this would mean inflation would rise, yet supply chain issues witnessed during the pandemic were now waning.

"While some of the goods that are being purchased internationally and imported into New Zealand, the price of them will go up, the price of getting them here is starting to come down, so there are some countervailing things for inflation.

"The Reserve Bank and others have been clear that inflation will stay higher than it has been in the recent past for a longer period of time,” he commented.