Iran war: Nicola Willis to ask White House when they see things returning to ‘normal’

Wednesday, 15 April 2026

Finance Minister Nicola Willis is heading to the White House to press US officials when global conditions might return to “normal”.

Willis is in Washington DC for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank spring meetings, scheduling meetings with a range of other finance ministers from around the world and the World Bank itself.

In an exclusive interview with The Post from Washington, Willis said the mood in DC was “sombre” and revealed her upcoming meeting with the US administration.

On Wednesday local time she will go to the White House and meet with Pierre Yared, the acting chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and Francis Brooke, the acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs.

Read more:

• Citing fallout from the Iran war, IMF cuts the outlook for global growth, expects higher inflation

• Strait of Hormuz blockade could strain US-China relations and hit NZ economy

• Should we be throwing the kitchen sink at the fuel crisis like Australia?

Willis said she would be putting forward New Zealand’s concern about the conflict.

“That will be an opportunity to put on their radar the significant economic impact the conflict is having for New Zealand and our concerns about that,” Willis said.

“I will be outlining the practical facts, which is that New Zealand is highly dependent on refined fuel products out of Southeast Asia and that so long as they can't get the crude oil feed stock needed to create those refined products, we can continue to anticipate not only very high prices, but potential supply disruptions, which is of significant concern to us.”

“So no matter what the path is through, New Zealand's interest is in the restoration of normal maritime passage through the Strait of Hormuz, because it's such a key passage for for fuel, but also, more generally, from a global perspective, we always stand up for free maritime movement.”

Willis has been somewhat more critical of the US in recent weeks than her ministerial colleagues, saying last week Donald Trump’s threat to end a civilisation was “unprecedented” and “alarming”.

She told The Post the meeting would also be a chance for her to ask the officials about the the US view on when things would return to “normal”.

“How are they seeing those issues, and what are the ramifications that are on their radar? And what is their view on what the trajectory for the conflict will be, and therefore, how soon they expect the economy to go back to normal? Where are they seeing inflation going globally, in the US and elsewhere, and how resilient do they think the world economic will be to what is clearly a challenging event?”

Willis said she would not be focusing these talks on getting fuel from the US instead of our normal supplies, but there was some potential that the US could replace some of the fuel stuck in the Middle East - either through crude oil going to refineries that supply New Zealand or with US-refined fuel being imported directly.

Her Government is currently attempting to obtain extra fuel stocks for New Zealand on the commercial market, but Willis declined to go into detail about this, citing commercial sensitivity.

Willis: NZ pushing for Pacific assistance

Willis met with the World Bank President Ajay Banga on Tuesday (local time) and will be meeting with her counterparts from around the world, including UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves and finance ministers from the Netherlands, Germany, and Malaysia.

She said developing countries were at the fore and she had discussed the Pacific with the World Bank, where many states are extremely reliant on diesel. Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency on Funafuti Island for two weeks in light of risks to the fuel and electricity supply, according to RNZ.

“We're putting the Pacific very much on their radar as a place where assistance from the World Bank may be required and where it's important that it's timely and targeted in the right places,” Willis said.

“It's always important to us to bring that Pacific focus, which certainly the World Bank have on their radar. They're very conscious of the Pacific's fuel dependency and the need those states will have for pretty quick assistance in some cases.”

She said the mood so far was “sombre” and tainted with huge uncertainty.

“A big theme coming through is just the level of uncertainty about what the duration will be, how long it will be until the Strait opens up again, how much residual damage there will have been to energy infrastructure, and therefore how long it will take for supply chains to revert to normal.”

The IMF put out a report ahead of the conference suggesting the Iran war could see global inflation could rise to 4.4% this year and growth slump to 3.1%, with New Zealand seeing 3.1% inflation and 3.1% growth.

Asked about the IMF’s projections, she noted just how much uncertainty weighed on them.

Willis said New Zealand was undoubtedly going to be “poorer” than it would be without the crisis but she still expected the economy to grow.

“This is a very challenging set of circumstances for the New Zealand economy, and there's no doubt that the events in the Middle East have made us poorer than we would otherwise be at this point or would be in the future. However, across a range of scenarios, we continue to see the New Zealand economy growing this year, albeit at a slower pace than would have otherwise been the case.”

She said having a largely renewable electricity system meant that New Zealand was at least not having to worry about massive spikes in power prices alongside fuel prices, and the focus of many counterparts was preparing the world for future fuel shocks, as this was unlikely to be the last.