The economic impact of Covid-19 is expected to be worse than the Canterbury earthquakes and the Global Financial Crisis combined

The Budget will be released this afternoon.

Former Finance Minister Steven Joyce says debt will increase to 40 to 50 percent of Gross Domestic Product.

He says we all understand this is the reality.

However, Joyce says in today's Budget we need to see how we're going to get back into some sort of balance over next few years.