Browse by topic

Growing knowledge-intensive service industries is an opportunity to address New Zealand’s declining productivity.

Diversifying the primary sector’s core crops with high-value crops like saffron would add resilience to New Zealand’s economy.

Tax cuts provide short-term relief, but if we are to become more prosperous and improve living standards, long-term productivity improvements are essential.

Official Cash Rate announcement is a light on the horizon for homeowners, but migration is putting pressure on housing costs for renters.

The CPI trends downward, but is it telling the whole story?

This week, the New Zealand Treasury opened its books, showing optimistic forecasts for economic growth, inflation, and employment.

This is a different type of FTA. A breach of climate change and gender equality commitments could result in trade sanctions under the NZ-EU FTA.

The Emissions Trading Scheme is undergoing a landmark review. Forestry will play a crucial role, but there is tension between reducing and sequestering emissions.

Budget 2023, shaped by competing dynamics, lived up to its name – the “no frills” budget. It also revealed that we are playing catch-up with our largest neighbour.

Has the labour market peaked? The trend of low unemployment and high wage growth continues, but that is expected to change sooner rather than later.

It looks like the worst of inflation may be behind us. The labour market is showing early signs of cooling down, oil prices have fallen, and OCR hikes seem to be working.

The New Zealand economy contracted late in 2022 indicating that the recession, which has largely been engineered, may have started nearly six months ago.

Contractionary monetary policy is not always a silver bullet to curb inflation during turbulent times.

Annual inflation did not budge in December 2022. But it was below expectations, so how strongly will this impact the next OCR announcement?

The 2023 Budget Policy Statement makes the Government’s priority clear as it heads into the election year – reduce inflation. 

Monetary policy is a complex, yet blunt tool. Does a dual mandate simply further take away from monetary policy serving its primary purpose?

Treasury forecasts suggest no easing of pressures currently ravaging the economy. Key economic indicators point towards a tough couple of years ahead. 

For the September 2022 year, inflation in producers’ input and output prices have remained steady at record high levels. 

With seemingly no more room to grow, the labour market continues to surprise on the upside. 

Households continue to grapple with high inflation. And the newly released consumer price index suggests no easing of this challenge.

In 1994, BERL published forecasts for GDP and employment growth over the five years between 1994 to 1999. How well did we do? 

Economic activity rebounds as services and exports perform strongly. We may have avoided a recession, but the outlook remains blurry.

Natural gas prices are rising rapidly in Europe, leading to rises in the prices of energy, steel, zinc, and fertiliser.

While unemployment is low, wages are falling far behind inflation. This tight labour market is also a challenge for employers, as the brain drain continues.

Consumer confidence is at the lowest it’s been since 1988. Households have been battered by tough economic conditions and fear it will get worse.

GDP shrank by 0.2 percent in the March 2022 quarter. Omicron-related factors continue to cloud the outlook.

The value of both exports and imports has been rising, but export volumes are dropping. The result is that the balance of trade has slipped further into deficit.

Business price inflation has risen rapidly to levels not seen since the Global Financial Crisis. Will it jump past 10 percent in 2022?

We summarise what we liked and what could have been better in Budget 2022.

March 2022 inflation results officially show what we already knew. Prices of necessities like food, housing and transport all increased, putting households under pressure