In November I was invited by the ANZ to a presentation from Sharon Zollner, Chief Economist ANZ. The presentation covered the turbulent road the economy has been on and the impact the previous government and reserve bank played in over heating the economy. The good news is that Sharon is cautiously optimistic the economy is slowly improving.

The big ‘shake my head moment’ was the already billions of dollars NZ Inc. has had to pay back in interest on the increase in debt we now have as a country. The comment was made how that interest could have paid for a lot of new hospitals!

Click on the link below to read the presentation.

The IMF estimates that NZ was one of the most overheated advanced economies in the world in both 2021 and 2022.
• Three special factors:
– Biggest housing bubble in the world
– The closed border interrupting labour supply
– Fiscal policy was very slow to turn
• Upshot: the RBNZ faced a bigger homegrown inflation problem
than most (albeit one they helped create).

Click on this link and download to read the full presentation November 2024