The New Zealand Government has said that the focus for the current economic recovery will be different than that of traditional recovery, with a focus on establishing sustainable long-term returns. Tackling current imbalances in the New Zealand economy will not be a short-term task, and will require “relentless” long-term focus and policy reform. The analysis and the Government’s future policy outlook was released on August 11th, in a speech to the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development, by Bill English, Finance Minister of ... Read More

The New Zealand Government will need to revise its economic growth projections after latest employment figures showed a significant increase in unemployment. New Zealand's unemployment rate rose to 6.8 percent during the June quarter, compared to a level of 6 percent in the prior quarter. The latest figure represents a 19 000 person increase in national unemployment, bringing the total to approximately 159 000. The statistics were released government's Household Labour Force Survey, released on August 5th. Last month Alan Bollard, Governor of the ... Read More

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has deemed the country’s economic growth strong enough to instate another increase to the national Official Cash Rate. New Zealand has continued down a path of a relatively healthy economic recovery in recent months, despite a small slowdown in selected growth figures. On July 29th Allan Bollard, Governor of the Reserve Bank, revealed that the current conditions are adequate to warrant a slight withdrawal of stimulus policy and a 25 basis point increase the Official Cash Rate ... Read More