New Zealand Economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF ) has warned that rising interest rates poses an major threat to the New Zealand economy due to the country’s extreme exposure to the housing market.

New Zealand had one of the world’s fastest growing housing markets in 2021, with prices nationally rising 25%.

Days after New Zealand’s consumer confidence hit a record low amid an explosion in COVID cases (i.e. around 200,000 since the start of February): Voters continue to move against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

After cutting itself off from the world over the pandemic, Kiwis seem to be depressed about reopening to the world and the prospect that Omicron is about to be let loose.

A cabinet paper from New Zealand’s Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment, which explains how New Zealand has morphed into a low-wage guest worker economy on the back of extreme levels of temporary migration.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) latest Monetary Policy Statement, released yesterday, is now forecasting an earlier and steeper decline in house prices, beginning from the current quarter.

In May last year, New Zealand’s Ardern Government vowed to end low-skilled, wage crushing migration via a “once-in-a generation” reset for New Zealand’s immigration system.

The REINZ has released its house price index for January, which recorded a 2.2% monthly decline: This follows the 1.6% decline recorded in December.

Covid-fatigued Kiwis are fast falling out of love with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

New Zealand’s unemployment rate has plummeted to 3.2%, according to Statistics NZ: The unemployment rate remained low in the last quarter of 2021, down to 3.2 percent, from 3.3 percent (revised) the previous quarter, while the underutilisation rate did not change at 9.2 percent.

Covid-fatigued Kiwis are falling out of love with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

In October, New Zealand Prime Minister officially abandoned the country’s COVID elimination strategy, claiming the Delta variant was “a tentacle that has been incredibly hard to shake”.

According to CoreLogic, New Zealand property finished with an average price of $1,006,632 and record-breaking annual market growth of 27.4%: This surpassed the previous record of 24.4% annual growth in 2003.

Just in from The Australian: New Zealand has delayed reopening its border to Australia until the end of February, amid fears opening will allow Omicron into the country.