New Zealand's first 'well-being budget' targets mental health

WELLINGTON, New Zealand-New Zealand's government announced on Thursday it will spend billions of dollars more on mental health services and combating child poverty as part of a new approach to its finances.

The liberal-led government unveiled the country's first so-called well-being budget. It aims to measure social outcomes like health and the environment alongside traditional metrics such as economic growth.

"We said that we would be a government that did things differently, and for this budget we have done just that," New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.