So, when Grant Robertson (Finance), Megan Woods (Energy) and Michael Wood (Transport) recently announced "significant additional support", they knew something we didn't.
Sure enough, the next day, Stats NZ released its quarterly Consumer Price Index for the three months to June and it wasn't happy reading.
The cost of living crisis is getting worse as inflation hits 7.3%, the highest increase since 1990. The increase was largely driven by rising rents and construction costs.
Let's hope the next quarterly Consumer Price Index contains less doom and gloom.