Jacinda Ardern to Step Down as New Zealand Prime Minister

· “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” Ms. Ardern said. “But I absolutely believe and know there are others around me who do.”

· New virus variants became more contagious and more people became vaccinated, patience with the severe measures wore thin.

· The strict border policy, lifted last year, has exacerbated tightness in its labor market by choking off the flow of migrants, including students and young travelers who often bolster the workforce.

· It has been raising interest rates aggressively in an attempt to curb spending, a strategy increasingly at odds with those of other central banks, which have recently signaled more gradual rate increases to avoid crashing their economies.

· Richard Shaw, a politics professor at Massey University in New Zealand, said Ms. Ardern will be remembered for her strong performance in times of crisis and her style of politics. She avoids disparaging or denigrating her opponents, in contrast to some other contemporary political figures, such as former President Donald Trump.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would step down by Feb. 7 after over five years as leader, as the country grapples with the prospect of a recession stemming partly from its strict response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms. Ardern, 42 years old, has struggled to reverse her Labour Party’s slide in the polls ahead of an election due later this year, and said on Thursday that she lacked the energy to do the job. It marks a turnaround for a leader whose pandemic policies, including lengthy border closures, helped her party to a landslide win in the last election in 2020.

“I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” Ms. Ardern said. “But I absolutely believe and know there are others around me who do.”

New Zealand, like much of the world, is struggling with elevated inflation, though the challenge facing the South Pacific country is tougher in some ways.

Ms. Ardern’s strict response to the Covid-19 helped the country avoid the worst outcomes of the pandemic—the country of about five million people has recorded less than 2,500 Covid-19 deaths, fewer per capita than the U.S. and many European countries. At times, the country succeeded in effectively eliminating community transmission of the virus. Still, as the pandemic wore on, new virus variants became more contagious and more people became vaccinated, patience with the severe measures wore thin. For much of the pandemic, returning New Zealanders had to quarantine in a state-run system that had limited capacity and was run like a lottery, making it difficult for many to get home from abroad.

The strict border policy, lifted last year, has exacerbated tightness in its labor market by choking off the flow of migrants, including students and young travelers who often bolster the workforce. At the same time, New Zealand’s currency has fallen sharply, making energy, vehicles and other products more expensive to import.

The challenge is so acute that the central bank says it is deliberately trying to cause a recession to bring prices under control. It has been raising interest rates aggressively in an attempt to curb spending, a strategy increasingly at odds with those of other central banks, which have recently signaled more gradual rate increases to avoid crashing their economies.

Opinion polls have shown Labour trailing the opposition National Party, although Ms. Ardern’s standing with voters was higher than other political leaders’. One survey released last month by 1 News Kantar showed support for Labour had fallen to 33%, from 41% around a year earlier. The National Party topped that poll with 38%.

The National Party has criticized Ms. Ardern’s economic management, saying it would rein in government spending, stop adding new taxes and better address worker shortages, though opposition leader Christopher Luxon thanked her for her service on Thursday.

“She has given her all to this incredibly demanding job and I wish her and her family all the very best for the future,” Mr. Luxon tweeted.

Under Ms. Ardern’s leadership, New Zealand has sought to portray its foreign policy as independent as it attempts to balance its economic reliance on China with its security ties with the U.S. and Australia. But Ms. Ardern, whose government has expressed concerns about Chinese efforts to gain influence in the Pacific and sanctioned Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, has tended to align with the U.S. and its allies.

Ms. Ardern made international headlines when she gave birth while in power in 2018, and won admirers with her empathetic response to the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, when a gunman killed more than 50 people at two mosques. After the shooting, Ms. Ardern’s government spearheaded big changes to New Zealand’s gun laws.

“She’s been an inspiration in very many ways, including for young women who might be thinking about running for political office—that it’s possible to do it on your own terms,” said Jennifer Curtin, a politics professor at the University of Auckland.

But Ms. Ardern has her critics. Last year, opponents of a vaccine mandate set up camp on the grounds of Parliament, eventually prompting police to tear down tents and tow away vehicles while the crowd set fires and hurled debris and abuse.

Richard Shaw, a politics professor at Massey University in New Zealand, said Ms. Ardern will be remembered for her strong performance in times of crisis and her style of politics. She avoids disparaging or denigrating her opponents, in contrast to some other contemporary political figures, such as former President Donald Trump. But he said that Ms. Ardern wasn’t able to get much traction in tackling poverty, unequal wealth and income distribution or the housing crisis.

Prof. Shaw said he believes Ms. Ardern when she says she is exhausted, noting that she has a big security detail and has been the subject of frequent personal attacks, including from misogynists. Still, he said her resignation has taken many people by surprise. It isn’t yet clear who might succeed her as Labour leader, but Prof. Shaw said it will be difficult to replace Ms. Ardern’s star power on the international stage.

“She’s faced more crises over the last five years than any other New Zealand prime minister in the postwar period,” he said. “She’s really been a crisis prime minister.”

On Thursday, Ms. Ardern said she is proud of what she accomplished as leader, citing progress on climate change, child poverty, access to education, working conditions and issues of national identity.

She said the election would be held Oct. 14.