Economy Watch

In five years' time we would see things we can't imagine today if the Government adopts the Commerce Commission's recommendations to boost competition for personal banking services, Commission Chairman John Small says. Speaking about the Commission's draft report from its banking market study in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Small says he'll be interested to see wha...

Kia ora, Welcome to Friday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with that is full of unexpected data and outcomes. US jobless claims fell last week to 190,000 and this was lower than expected. The number of people still on this unemployment insu...

Kia ora, Welcome to Thursday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news the Fed has held its policy rate unchanged at 5.5% but given strong signals cuts are coming - but later than markets were expecting. However they still see three cuts in...

With a United States presidential election looming in November, Patrick Watson, Senior Economic Analyst at Mauldin Economics , says it's difficult to say what the key economic battleground will be because many voters are "living in their own realities." Speaking in a new episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Watson says there's not a great deal of agreement on whether the US economy i...

Kia ora, Welcome to Monday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news of a week of big policy announcements with some potentially very big implications. First all eyes will be on Japan's rate review (tomorrow, Tuesday). Strong wage gains in...

Kia ora, Welcome to Friday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news American data supports the Fed's cautious approach to its monetary policy management - pushing away imminent rate cuts. Benchmark rates have risen sharply. US new jobless...

Kia ora, Welcome to Wednesday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news China's inward turn is gathering pace as it fears foreign influence. But first, US mortgage applications rose strongly last week from the week before, up more than +6%....

The "cheer squad" make it hard to have a proper debate on housing, especially when looking to address the question of what we want from the housing market from a public policy perspective. So says Cameron Murray, Chief Economist at Fresh Economic Thinking , a new Australian think-tank. In the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast Murray talks about housing and his new book The Gr...

Kia ora, Welcome to Wednesday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news the never-ending car crash that is China's residential property development sector, took another bump today. But first in the US, their inflation rate unexpectedly edge...

Kia ora, Welcome to Tuesday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news about how hard it is to get the 'last mile' of above-policy inflation accomplished. American consumer inflation expectations for the year ahead remained stuck and sticky...

Kia ora, Welcome to Monday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news China seems to have managed to arrest its deflationary mood with solid consumer spending in their Lunar New Year holiday. But first, in the week ahead, we get the importan...

Kia ora, Welcome to Friday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news we seem to be "not far" from getting interest rate cuts from the central banks in the US and Europe - and perhaps an unusual hike from Japan. Tomorrow we get the important...

Kia ora, Welcome to Thursday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand. I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz. And today we lead with news the US Fed says it needs to see more progress on inflation before it considers a rate cut. But they hinted that a cut could be coming later this year. That was enough to...