New Zealand Economy

By Leith van Onselen Earlier this month, the New Zealand Government released an Issues Paper proposing to ‘ring-fencing’ investors’ losses on residential property so they cannot be offset against unrelated wage/salary income, in a bid to level the playing field between property investors and first home buyers.

By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for March, which revealed a 2.2% seasonally adjusted monthly decline in the national median house price, although prices were up 1.9% year-on-year: Outside of Auckland, seasonally adjusted house prices rose by 0.1% in March, with prices up 5.9% year-on-year.

By Leith van Onselen Last week, New Zealand’s parliament passed legislation to extend the “bright line test” out to five years, thus ensuring that if a speculator sells a rental property within five years they will pay income tax on the capital gain.

By Leith van Onselen The New Zealand Labour-led Government’s review of the Reserve Bank Act has broadened the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) mandate on setting the official cash rate (OCR) to target the “maximum sustainable level of employment” as well as price stability (inflation).

By Leith van Onselen The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has today left the official cash rate (OCR) unchanged at 1.75% and noted that economic growth is expected to strengthen and the labour market tighten, despite the housing market being restrained.

By Leith van Onselen In August last year, Bernard Doyle, a strategist at JBWere, penned a ripping report on the New Zealand economy, arguing that rabid population growth was masking underlying weak productivity and poor per capita GDP growth: New Zealand has been in a productivity recession since 2012.

By Leith van Onselen In June last year, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) launched consultation to have debt-to-income (DTI) limits added to its macro-prudential toolkit.

By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released national accounts figures for the December quarter of 2017, with Gross domestic product (GDP) rising by 0.6% over the quarter to be up 2.9% year-on-year.

By Leith van Onselen In  the lead-up to last year’s September general election, I praised New Zealand Labour’s housing platform because it promised to address both supply and demand distortions via negative gearing reform, banning foreign buyers of existing homes, tighter capital gains taxes, removal of urban growth boundaries, plus bond financing for infrastructure.

By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for February, which revealed a 0.8% seasonally adjusted monthly rise in the national median house price, with prices also up 7.1% year-on-year: Outside Auckland, seasonally adjusted house prices rose by 2.0% in February, with prices up 8.5% year-on-year.

By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand on Friday released its dwelling consents data, which revealed that Auckland’s chronic housing shortage continues to worsen.

By Leith van Onselen Last month, a government-commissioned ‘stocktake’ of New Zealand’s housing market revealed that the nation faces a “deeper and more entrenched” housing crisis than previously thought, which is having “devastating impacts” particularly on homelessness.

By Leith van Onselen New Zealand’s Labour-led coalition government plans to be the first in the world to measure its success against how it does socially, culturally and environmentally, rather than relying on GDP – a rather useless measure that most economists and policy makers focus on.

By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released new data showing that the nation’s fertility rate has hit an all-time low: The total fertility rate summarises the age-specific fertility rates into a single-number indicator of fertility.

By Leith van Onselen There was a smidgen of good new on Friday for the New Zealand’s Labour-led Government, with immigration and population growth continuing to ease in the December quarter: In the year to December, New Zealand’s population moderated to 97,000 with net overseas migration (NOM) moderating to 69,970.

By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for January, which revealed a 0.7% seasonally adjusted monthly rise in the national median house price, with prices also up 7.0% year-on-year: Outside Auckland, seasonally adjusted house prices rose by 0.6% in January, with prices up 8.9% year-on-year.

By Leith van Onselen I reported yesterday how a government-commissioned ‘stocktake’ of New Zealand’s housing market revealed that the nation faces a “deeper and more entrenched” housing crisis than previously thought, which is having “devastating impacts” particularly on homelessness.

By Leith van Onselen The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has released its latest Monetary Policy Statement, whereby it has left the cash rate unchanged at 1.75% and noted that the housing market has accelerated despite moderate housing credit growth.