By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has this morning released its labour force data for the June quarter, with the unemployment rate falling to 4.8% from 4.9%. The key changes are outlined in the below table: As shown above, employment fell by 0.2% in the June quarter to be up 3.1% over the year,
By Leith van Onselen With the General Election scheduled for 23 September, the opposition Labour Party has done the unthinkable and replaced its leader. Interest.co.nz has documented this morning’s mayhem: 8am: Good morning. Labour Party leader Andrew Little will face his caucus just after 10am on the third floor of Parliament Buildings. Little cancelled all
By Leith van Onselen The New Zealand National Government’s single-minded focus on solving Auckland’s housing crisis by boosting supply continues to fail. Yesterday, Statistics New Zealand released figures showing that in the year ended June 2017, 30,453 new dwellings were consented: While this was up 4.7% from June 2016, it paled into insignificance against the
By Leith van Onselen The RBNZ has released its monthly credit aggregates data, which showed New Zealand household borrowing continuing to retrace sharply from September’s cyclical high, recording annual growth of 7.6% in June: Most of New Zealand’s household debt is driven by mortgages, which has also retraced sharply to to 7.7% in the year
By Leith van Onselen Back in April, New Zealand’s National Government announced modest “tweaks” to the country’s immigration program, which including a $48,000 income threshold for a skilled migrant, as well as only allowing employers to tap lower-skilled migrants for three years, with these people facing an annual review of their visas. The announcement of immigration
By Leith van Onselen New Zealand’s opposition leader, Andrew Little, was involved in a testy exchange Tuesday on TVNZ over the nation’s high immigration program, which Labour has promised to curb. First the good: Andrew Little: “Over the last four years, we’ve had a quadrupling of immigration numbers. And, the problem we’ve got is that
By Leith van Onselen Data released by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) revealed that property investor lending has cooled materially since the RBNZ implemented new loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions targeting investors, which officially came into effect on 1 October 2016, although banks began informally applying the rules since they were first announced in
By Leith van Onselen Back in April, New Zealand’s National Government announced modest “tweaks” to the country’s immigration program, which including a $48,000 income threshold for a skilled migrant, as well as only allowing employers to tap lower-skilled migrants for three years, with these people facing an annual review of their visas. The announcement of immigration
By Leith van Onselen Back in 2007, then National opposition leader, John Key, lamented the woeful housing affordability in New Zealand (Auckland in particular), and promised to undertake a wide range of supply-side reforms if elected into government. John Key was elected as Prime Minister in November 2008 and the National Government has ruled ever
By Leith van Onselen Back in March, New Zealand’s Productivity Commission (PC) has released a report entitled “Urban planning – moving beyond the wheel spin”, which basically concluded that Auckland’s housing system is under siege from the combination of rapid population growth butting heads with a dysfunctional planning system, which is unable to cope with
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released its permanent & long-term migration figures for June 2017, which revealed that annual net permanent and long-term migration into New Zealand hit a record high 72,305 people over the year: According to Statistics New Zealand, migrant arrivals were a record high 131,400 in the June 2017
By Leith van Onselen The man that looks set to hold the balance of power in the upcoming New Zealand General Election – New Zealand First’s Winston Peters – has demanded a banking inquiry, claiming that Australia’s banks are “like a hole in the hull of the New Zealand economy”. From Interest.co.nz: [Peters] is calling
By Leith van Onselen I noted back in May how anti-immigration party, New Zealand First, had significantly increased its voter support, meaning that it could hold the balance of power and decide who forms the next government following the 23 September General Election. Today, Roy Morgan Research has released new polling showing that the incumbent
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for June, which revealed a 0.2% seasonally adjusted monthly fall in the national median house price, although prices were still up 6.3% year-on-year: Outside Auckland, house prices rose by 0.6% in June, with prices up 11.5% year-on-year. Looking at the major cities, Auckland’s
By Leith van Onselen New Zealand’s housing minister, Nick Smith, took spin to a whole new level yesterday, denying that his National Government had failed on their promise to boost Auckland housing supply and arguing that housing affordability had actually improved. From Interest.co.nz: The Building and Construction Minister was speaking on Radio NZ about a story that
By Leith van Onselen Last week, Statistics New Zealand released figures showing that construction momentum has continued to slow in Auckland, with just 885 dwelling consents issued in May and 10,379 issued over the year, with a downward trend clearly evident: With Auckland’s population surging by 44,500 over the past year (see next chart) on
By Leith van Onselen The New Zealand National Government’s single-minded focus on solving Auckland’s housing crisis by boosting supply continues to fail. Today, Statistics New Zealand released figures showing that construction momentum has continued to slow in Auckland, with just 885 dwelling consents issued in May and 10,379 issued over the year, with a downward
By Leith van Onselen The IMF has just come out and backed the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s macroprudential policies. From Interest.co.nz: The Reserve Bank’s Loan to Valuation (LVR) mortgage lending limits appear to have put a cap on house price growth but haven’t reduced the risks borrowers face from rising mortgage interest rates, according
By Leith van Onselen Data released by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) revealed that property investor lending has cooled materially since the RBNZ implemented new loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions targeting investors, which officially came into effect on 1 October 2016, although banks began informally applying the rules since they were first announced in
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released its permanent & long-term migration figures for May 2017, which revealed that annual net permanent and long-term migration into New Zealand hit a record high 71,964 people over the year: According to Statistics New Zealand, migrant arrivals numbered 130,400 in the May 2017 year, versus departures
By Leith van Onselen After months of promising to slash New Zealand’s immigration intake by the “tens-of-thousands”, the opposition Labour Party appears to have backslid somewhat, promising to leave the excessively high permanent migrant intake untouched. From Interest.co.nz: Labour leader Andrew Little says he is confident the party’s new regional visa policy will ensure migrants
By Leith van Onselen In the wake of yesterday’s news that New Zealand’s economy has entered a ‘technical recession’ in per capita terms, the OECD’s chief economist, Catherine L. Mann, gave a bizarre presentation arguing that while New Zealand’s record immigration program has lowered per capita GDP in the short-run, it would be great for
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has today released national accounts figures for the March quarter of 2017, with Gross domestic product (GDP) rising by 0.5% over the quarter to be up 3.0% year-on-year. However, GDP per capita fell by 0.1% in the March quarter, which follows the 0.2% fall in the December quarter.
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for May, which revealed a 0.1% seasonally adjusted monthly rise in the national median house price, with prices up 6.2% year-on-year: Outside Auckland, house prices rose by 0.5% in May, with prices up 11.5% year-on-year. Looking at the major cities, Auckland’s seasonally adjusted
By Leith van Onselen Almost every day, concerns about New Zealand’s record immigration program are vented in the media, posing big problems for the incumbent National Government as the nation heads to the polls on 23 September. Sensing the growing backlash, the opposition Labour Party has vowed to cut immigration into New Zealand by 20,000
