New Zealand Economy

From Statistics New Zealand: Annual migrant arrivals of New Zealand citizens are provisionally estimated at 42,800 for the year ended March 2020, with almost half of these arriving between December 2019 and March 2020.

Via Bloomie: Australia and New Zealand’s prosperity is built on trading with the rest of the world: nimbly negotiating ebbs and capitalizing on flows.

ANZ has released its New Zealand business outlook, which has recorded record lows across the board: It’s the first look at business confidence levels since the start of the lockdown.

Via RBNZ: The New Zealand Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to implement a Large Scale Asset Purchase programme (LSAP) of New Zealand government bonds.

The REINZ has released its house price data for February, which revealed a 4.1% increase in median values over the month, with values nationally surging by 14.3% year-on-year to another record high: The summary breakdown shown below: Outside of Auckland, median house prices rose by 4.8% in February, with prices up 11.8% year-on-year.

In a speech delivered today, RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr has ruled out using unconventional monetary policy for the time being, but is open to the idea in the future should conditions warrant it: Largely since post the ‘Great Financial Crisis (GFC)’ of 2008, global inflation and interest rates have been remarkably low.

Westpac New Zealand has released analysis on the economic impacts of the coronavirus, which forecasts that New Zealand’s “currently rampant” housing market will “skid to a halt” over the second quarter.

New Zealand migration to Australia has halved according to Statistics New Zealand: The estimated number of people migrating from New Zealand to Australia was 31,300 in the year ended June 2019, Stats NZ said today.

In the lead-up to the September 2017 New Zealand general election, Labour promised to reduce immigration by around a third by cutting the numbers of work and student visas: …in recent years our population has been growing rapidly as record numbers of migrants arrive here.

Via Bloomie: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could be facing a tough battle to win re-election this year, with her opponents holding a small lead seven months out from the vote, a new poll shows.

Interest.co.nz has published an interesting article on how this year’s national election campaign will confront exactly the same housing problems as the 2017 election: Labour will be stuck between a rock and a hard place campaigning on housing issues ahead of the election.

In the lead-up to the September 2017 general election, the New Zealand Labour Party launched a plan to reduce immigration by around a third in a bid to relieve chronic housing and infrastructure pressures (especially around Auckland): …in recent years our population has been growing rapidly as record numbers of migrants arrive here.

Bravo RBNZ again: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand today released its final decisions following its comprehensive review of its capital framework for banks, known as the Capital Review.

In the lead-up to the September 2017 general election, the New Zealand Labour Party launched a plan to reduce immigration by around a third in a bid to relieve chronic housing and infrastructure pressures (especially around Auckland): …in recent years our population has been growing rapidly as record numbers of migrants arrive here.

The New Zealand Herald business columnist, Liam Dann, lamented that the nation’s population is about to hit 5 million people 30-years earlier than projected in 2004: I have become obsessed with a Statistics New Zealand press release from 2004.

New Zealand’s home ownership rate has plunged to 70-year lows, according to the latest Census: According to the 2018 census, only 64.5 per cent of New Zealanders own their own home, compared to nearly 74 per cent in the early 1990s.