Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has called Budget 2024 "a diamond made under pressure".
Speaking at Eden Park at the post-Budget breakfast, Luxon said it is the product of a "systematic commitment to actually driving [better value for money] out of every government spend".
"We have been able to deliver more money for health, more money for education, more money for disability services. But there's also more money for police, more money for corrections and more money for defence."
Luxon added the Budget is one for the "squeezed middle", and was the tightest annual Budget for more than five years.
"It's fair to say this Budget comes with a difficult economic backdrop. But I have to say there are some encouraging signs of progress already.
"Inflation is coming down quite fast. It's down to 4% from being 7% not that long ago. Food inflation has now collapsed down to 1%, down from 12% just over a year ago.
"Interest rates remain painfully high, but they have begun to soften in recent months and, importantly, business confidence is well off the lows of 2022 and also 2023, showing while times are tough, there's a growing sense of optimism in the boardroom and at the building site."
Luxon said the accounting deficit, which was "among the worst in the developed world" has also come down "as we start to sell more of our exports offshore".
"But we know there's a lot more to do and there's a lot more for us to get into as we go forward."
Yesterday, the Government's first Budget was dominated by tax cuts — who was getting them, how much they were getting, and where the money for them was coming from.
Along with the Budget announcement, crowds gathered across the country for a nationwide hīkoi to protest the coalition Government's policies affecting Māori.
The Government said the Budget changes would help Kiwis doing it tough, but the opposition said it delivered to a tiny percentage of the population while offering "piddly capital investment in the important areas of health and education".
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