We were sent a resoundingly clear message last week from the rest of the world, via the foreign exchange market:
"You guys have to export more and import less, save more and spend less, produce more and consume less."
Responding to that signal, as we must, will take time and will not be fun for those whose businesses or livelihoods depend on the domestic sectors of the economy.
Economists talk about the dollar's weakness as part of a process of adjustment to a major imbalance, the current account deficit.
It will encourage resources to flow, they say, from the domestic to the tradeable sectors of the economy, improving the trade account and hauling the overall current account deficit into a less disreputable zone.
That is a polite way of saying we have been living beyond our means for years in our dealings with the rest of the world, funding the shortfall by selling assets and running up debt to an extent that now has international investors looking at us with squinty eyes and curled lips.
Now we need to focus on earning our living as a trading nation.
Easier said than done.
It requires confronting deep structural impediments to expansion and deepening the country's export base.
And it raises questions about the consequences - demographic and fiscal - of a prolonged period of slow growth in the domestic sectors of the economy.
New Zealand's exports are based more on rain than brain.
The low-tech nature of our exports reflects the fact that, for all the hype about the "knowledge economy," New Zealand's research and development spending is alarmingly low as percentage of our gross domestic product (which in turn is nothing to write home about).
The private sector which has not been pulling its weight in R and D spending.
But what signal does the Government's broken election promise on tax breaks for R and D send?
Nine months into its term, where is Industry New Zealand?
Where are export credit guarantees?
In other respects the Government has responded to business concerns.
The modern apprenticeship scheme has been well received, but turning around a chronic shortage of skilled labour will take years.
Bringing the external accounts back into kilter will require not only an improved export performance but a subdued domestic economy that cannot afford to suck in imports with the same gusto it has in recent years.
The trade figures are showing a slowdown in import growth.
Higher petrol prices and interest rates have put a dampener on the consumer's urge to splurge.
The big question is how long things will need to stay like that before the external deficits are restored to what our international creditors consider supportable levels.
If the answer is years, rather than quarters, the risk is that it will increase the exodus of skill and talent overseas which hollows out the tax base and permanently enfeebles the economy.
<i>Between the lines:</i> Powerful message comes with dollar's downfall
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