National leader Todd Muller has given a speech at a business luncheon in Christchurch outlining what he says is his party's first big announcement on its economic plan for New Zealand.

Called 'National's Plan to Get New Zealand Working', it represents a framework of how it will help the country to recover post COVID-19.

The plan has five themes: responsible economic management; delivering infrastructure; retraining the workforce; a greener smarter future and building stronger communities.

In it, Muller says a National government will borrow to help stimulate the economy but not as much as the current government.

He says the exact details, such as the level of debt to GDP a National government would tolerate, will be announced in September, 17 days before the election and following the pre-election economic and fiscal update.

The full plan will not be finalised until after the Government releases the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU) in August.

It will be available by September 2 when overseas voting begins, to be followed by early voting, which starts on September 5.