Lending still in all the wrong places

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Interest.co.nz’s David Hargreaves has posted the below chart showing that Kiwis continue to leverage big time into non-productive housing lending, whereas consumer lending has also rebounded hard. By contrast, lending to productive areas of the economy – businesses and agriculture – remains stuck in negative:

NZ lending

Non-productive lending booms.

The latest increase [in housing lending] means that the annual rate of increase has lifted to 11.4% from 11% a month earlier and that’s now the fastest pace of growth since February 2008…

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.