Finance Minister Bill English will outline the Government's plan for economic recovery to international lenders during visits to Tokyo, New York and Boston next week.

He said today the aim was to assure them the Government had a realistic plan to control debt, lift growth and rebalance the economy towards greater investment and exports.

The Treasury has forecast the Government will have to borrow about $40 billion over the next four years to fund budget deficits.

The Berl report into the social costs of alcohol being used by the Law Commission is work that doesn’t look like it meets the “normal standards you would expect”, according to Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Dr Peter Bushnell.