She said the government has a willingness to do what is needed to take the pressure off Kiwis and would continue to do so if inflation continued to rise.
Pressed on whether or not the $350 cost of living payment, the first installment set to be deposited into the bank account of two million on Monday, would only add to inflation, Ardern said it is expected to have minimal impact.
"The advice that we got from Treasury is that because it was time limited and targeted would lessen the potential impact on inflation," she said.
On targeting the winter energy payment, she said she stands by the fact that 80 per cent of New Zealanders, some of which would not require it – such as millionaires, receive this injection of funds.
"So yes, global inflation, we have a tough period but we also predict that it will come away and we are well place to recover because there are so many other elements of our economy that are strong."
"The responsibility we have is to help New Zealanders get through it and that's where you'll see that we've been so squarely focused on where we can take that pressure off.
"You'll see that we've tried to be agile to the circumstances we see and we'll continue to see what impacts these are having on New Zealanders and do what we can, we have a way to go with getting the food costs down which is another big project for us."
Ardern rejected the opposition party's idea that some spending, such as on the restructuring of the healthcare system and a TVNZ merger, has had a play on inflation.
"The opposition coming at us and saying that their response would be to see a reduction, that is a reduction in education, health care, law and order – very much where those significant investments have been about maintaining and growing services New Zealand relies on."
She questioned where a reduction response would have any impact on the current inflation situation.
