Of Interest

Chinese officials are watching the 2026 election for a signal on whether New Zealand’s more United States-aligned security posture will become a permanent fixture. If they assess that it is, the trade relationship might be at risk. That’s the opinion of David Mahon, a Kiwi business consultant based in Beijing. “New Zealand–China relations are already at their worst stage since diplomatic recogniti...

IAn international collaboration and months of forensic investigation and fact-checking has helped a small Kiwi financial journalism website break a story involving a New Zealand company that moved massive amounts of money for multiple clients who were later convicted of financial crimes. Worldclear Limited - a banking clearing house based in Hamilton which is no longer operating - was able to set...

Under the leadership of President Donald Trump there's a danger the United States will become an autocratic nation, not unlike China, Saudi Arabia or Russia, and New Zealand should strive to avoid becoming the focus of Trump's wrath, suggests David Cay Johnston. Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, co-founder of DCReport and journalism professor at Rochester Institute of Te...

Artificial intelligence (AI) should be a key election year issue especially given the technology has major potential to help improve New Zealand's productivity, says Mark Laurence. Laurence, founder and CEO of Ten Past Tomorrow which is an AI consultancy and education business, spoke to interest.co.nz in a new episode of the  Of Interest podcast . "I'm kind of flabbergasted that it hasn't become a...

​ By Gareth Vaughan The Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to lift its cash rate 25 basis points this week means it's now 160 basis points higher than the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's official cash rate highlighting differing levels of assertiveness between the two central banks, Imre Speizer, Head of New Zealand Strategy at Westpac, says. The RBS's cash rate is now at 3.85% with the RBNZ's OCR...

By Gareth Vaughan A new all-of-government strategy to tackle organised crime aims to make New Zealand the hardest place in the world for organised criminal groups to do business and following the money is key to the fight, says the Chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime. One of the Ministerial Advisory Group's recommendations is to broaden the lega...

​ By Gareth Vaughan Governor Anna Breman has implied the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee will increase the Official Cash Rate (OCR) in the run-up to November's election if members believe this is what is required. "We are statutory independent. We are an independent central bank, like you point out, and we will do what is best for the New Zealand economy and to reach our inflation target,...

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon visiting India before China could be seen as an insult in China, Beijing-based New Zealander David Mahon says. But he says China's recently announced strategic partnership with the Cook Islands, through which NZ was kept in the dark, shouldn't be viewed as insult to, or provocation of, NZ. Mahon, who is Managing Director of Mahon China Investment Management and has...

Stats NZ’s final data release for the year revealed the economy has been shrinking at its fastest rate in three decades. While this may not be a very Merry Christmas, there is still hope for a Happy New Year. Treasury, the Reserve Bank, and most economists expect growth to resume in 2025 as interest rates fall. Consumer spending should pick back up and cheaper credit should make business investmen...

The Government could run a second retirement income scheme alongside NZ Superannuation as part of a transition to a new system, but according to Andrew Coleman, this couldn't be done without an increase in taxes on older people, or more general tax increases. Fresh from his 13 part interest.co.nz series on NZ's government retirement income system and associated taxes, Coleman spoke to myself and T...

New Zealanders should be grateful insurance companies remain committed to New Zealand given the country's risk exposure, John Lyon of Ando Insurance says. In the latest episode of the Of Interest podcast  I asked Lyon how well general insurers are serving New Zealanders, how competitive the market is, and how the public should judge strong financial results from their insurers. As well as being CE...

Milford Asset Management’s head of KiwiSaver says KiwiSaver – the country’s voluntary retirement savings scheme which is in its 17th year – is a teenager that’s about to head into adulthood. “I think it's the right time to have the discussions we were having at the [Financial Services Council] Conference. By and large, providers are pretty well aligned around how we can improve KiwiSaver and make...

The integrity of bond markets on both sides of the Tasman is at stake as regulators probe issues of potential market manipulation,  Australian Financial Review  senior reporter Jonathan Shapiro says. Shapiro is covering the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) probe of the ANZ Group's role in a A$14 billion 2023 Australian government bond sale, and taking an interest in the Fina...

Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden wants a third supermarket competitor to set up shop in New Zealand in order to tackle the country’s supermarket duopoly, but reducing the barriers to entry won’t happen overnight. “What we've been told by these players is when they come and they want to open up a large store in New Zealand, the cost to get a spade in the ground is double that of Australia,”...

With US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell  signalling interest rate cuts ahead, the US dollar's likely to weaken with the Kiwi dollar rising against it, Imre Speizer, Head of NZ Markets Strategy at Westpac Institutional Bank, says. Speaking in a new episode of the  Of Interest podcast ,  Speizer says although the expected central bank interest rate trajectory is very similar in NZ and the US...

The process of growth will be the main benefit from a scaled up Kiwibank, while public acclaim will be a key measure of open banking's success, Commerce Commission Chairman John Small says. Small spoke to interest.co.nz for the latest episode of the  Of Interest podcast , which will be published later on Wednesday. The interview came after the Commission released the final report  from its market...

Deputy Governor Christian Hawkesby says the Reserve Bank's (RBNZ) Monetary Policy Committee might have taken a different stance in May if the economic activity forecasts had been more accurate. In May, forecasts had anticipated 1% GDP growth for the calendar year. But by August, that had been revised to a 0.4% contraction, with a deep decline in the June quarter. The RBNZ chose to cut the Official...

The balance of power in the labour market sits firmly with employers, with a big rise in job applicants over the past year chasing a significantly diminished number of jobs, says Frog Recruitment Managing Director Shannon Barlow. "For our recruitment agency, we're probably experiencing around three to four times the volume of applications compared with last year. And that's across the board, acros...

The Government's push to have more apartments, including shoebox apartments, built should be welcomed over time by a range of buyers including first home buyers, property investors and retirees, suggests John Bolton, founder of mortgage broker, lender and savings product provider Squirrel. Speaking in a new episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Bolton, also a former banker who has dab...

Mainstream economics courses teach students money is a scarce resource and nature has boundless capacity to be exploited when in fact it's the other way around, argues Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) economist Steven Hail. Advocates say you don't do MMT, rather it's a description of how the monetary system works. And countries like New Zealand, where the Government - via the Reserve Bank - is the mon...

New Zealand's nascent private credit industry could account for up to 5% of business lending to operating companies over time, suggests Aotea Asset Management (AAM) executive director Will Carnachan. AAM, which launched three years ago, is a corporate debt fund manager organising  wholesale investors to contribute to direct secured loans to businesses. Private credit, a form of shadow banking, has...

The Reserve Bank surprised the market on Wednesday by dropping hints it was open to cutting rates sooner than planned , due to signs the economy was getting too weak. While the tone shift was unexpected, the central bank was reacting to the same data which had caused ASB’s economics team to change their own interest rate forecast the week prior. Nick Tuffley, the retail bank’s chief economist, sai...

New Zealand exporters to the United States might be at greater risk of being disrupted than those exporting to China, according to one trade expert. Despite talk about the need to diversify away from China due to geopolitical differences, it may be the United States that hits Kiwi businesses with tariffs intended to shut them out. Stephen Jacobi, the executive director of the NZ International Busi...

The first New Zealand and international wave of electric vehicle (EV) uptake is probably over, with cheaper cars and better public charging infrastructure required for further major growth in the uptake of these "batteries on wheels," says James Foster.  In a new episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Foster, who runs the EVDB website , says EVs reaching price parity with internal comb...

Ask Cameron Bagrie how to improve business and rural banking and some words reoccur in his answers. Three of them are "risk", "productivity", and "bankability." With two parliamentary select committees set to hold an inquiry into banking competition , the business and rural banking markets will feature, unlike in the Commerce Commission probe into competition in the personal banking market. In the...