The economy will be the focus of John Key's state of the nation speech in Auckland this afternoon.
Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper says the Prime Minister will be setting out to impress his lunchtime business audience that his hand's firmly on the tiller.
And he's going to be steering the economy through rough seas with the global economic threat still hanging over our fragile economy.
But he's got the partial privatisation of the energy companies in his armoury, the first of which will be offered in a share float from April.
The business people in his audience will be expecting little policy but much in the way of stability and their confidence in his ability to deliver it will be the key to his success.
And the Government will remain tight fisted this year to achieve its such talked about surplus Budget by 2015.
So John Key's speech today will essentially be his business plan with little in the way of new policy expected.
