Economy Watch

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 business owners are having difficulty matching their sentiment with the conditions around them. And financial markets are in a bit of a pre-dawn shadow as they await th...

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 the IMF reckons the way the Aussie home loan market is structured accentuates mortgage rate pain. But first in the US, consumer inflation expectations for the year ahead...

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 investors are much less sure rate cuts will come in 2024. This week, given that American jobs growth remained strong in March, all eyes will now turn to their inflation da...

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 markets don't seem to be worrying about coming 'bad news' ahead of tomorrow's US March labour markets report. US initial jobless claims recorded a minor +2000 rise last we...

The departing Chief Executive of the Insurance Council of New Zealand says if Wellington is hit with an earthquake on a similar scale to the Canterbury quakes, it would “raise some questions” on whether NZ insurers would be able to continue to purchase reinsurance at an affordable cost. “I think reinsurers would still be there. But the ability to purchase reinsurance at a good rate and the degree...

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 progress toward lower inflation is underway but the road is bumpy. But first up today we should note that American mortgage application levels decreased again last week....

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 yields are climbing as markets recognise the Fed is serious about wanting to see sustained inflation at 2%, and the US economy just keeps on powering ahead. And that is...

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 that global manufacturing indicators have turned quite positive. First in China, their official March PMIs have set a bullish tone to start the week. Their official facto...

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 natural events will likely have an increasing say in how the international economy operates. But first in the US, mortgage applications were lower last week again, and t...

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 that is increasingly positive in the world's largest economy. First up today, the retail signals in the US are quite positive. Their Redbook survey of bricks-and-mortar...

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 the American economic juggernaut rolls on, dominating global markets. American new home sales levels in February missed estimates, but ~7% mortgage interest rates basical...

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 all eyes are on China to see if they pull the trigger on their old stimulus playbook again. But first this week, the focal point in the United States will revolve around t...

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...