Of Interest

New Zealand is poised to end its role as an international outlier when it comes to deposit insurance. The Deposit Takers Bill is expected to be introduced to Parliament in the third quarter of this year. Included within it are proposals for a depositor compensation scheme to cover bank depositors in the event of bank, or non-bank deposit taker such as a building society, failing. Depositors will b...

The Reserve Bank's response to the Covid-19 pandemic followed a misdiagnosis of the problem, and we ought to use an inquiry to develop a blueprint for managing future challenges, says The Opportunities Party (TOP) Leader Raf Manji. Speaking in interest.co.nz's Of Interest Podcast ,  Manji says any inquiry into the Reserve Bank's response to the Covid-19 pandemic should be as apolitical as possible...

The labour market remains tight with an official unemployment rate of just 3.3%, and good pay rises for some workers with private sector hourly earnings up 7.1% in the June year, almost matching the highest inflation in 32 years of 7.3%. It seems as if every business you visit, and every business owner you talk to no matter what industry they're in, is looking for staff. Speaking in the latest epi...

Markets and prices for a number of asset classes are currently behaving as they tend to around the time of a recession, says BNZ Interest Rate Strategist Nick Smyth. Speaking in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest Podcast , Smyth also says financial markets pricing in Federal Reserve rate cuts as soon as next year, despite the Fed's current aggressive hiking and US Consumer Price I...

We've heard a lot over recent years about jobs and professions where people could be replaced by machines and other forms of technology. Accounting features prominently in this. In the 2017 television programme What Next?, psychologist Nigel Latta suggested that over 20 years the number of accountants in New Zealand would plummet from 17,669 to just 19, with humans being replaced by robots and alg...

Fresh from meeting with international reinsurers, Tower CEO Blair Turnbull says they are "questioning whether they want to be down under." Turnbull spoke to interest.co.nz for the latest episode of our  Of Interest Podcast about insurance and climate change. Reinsurers are highlighting they've taken losses for several years in a row, Turnbull said. "And they are looking very closely, as you would...

The Government's push to develop a national supply chain strategy doesn't make much sense because supply chains need to be matched to specific products, says a leading supply chain academic. Tava Olsen, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management and Director of the Centre for Supply Chain Management at the University of Auckland Business School, spoke to interest.co.nz for the latest epis...

Whilst the Reserve Bank views the Official Cash Rate (OCR) at its current level of 2% as neutral in that it's neither stimulating nor constraining economic activity, the steep rise in mortgage interest rates over the past year means they are well past a neutral level and are unlikely to rise much further, mortgage broker John Bolton says. Bolton, founder and executive director of mortgage broker S...

By Gareth Vaughan Climate Change Commission Chairman Rod Carr says he's optimistic about New Zealand's transition towards a zero carbon future despite the massive challenges we face, including from inflation. Carr spoke to interest.co.nz in an episode of the Of Interest Podcast . In the podcast he discusses the impact on inflation from moves to combat climate change, and from climate change itself...

By Gareth Vaughan By late 2020 it was clear central bank and government monetary policy and fiscal policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic had prevented a major economic downturn, and thus the Reserve Bank should've been looking to move monetary policy to a neutral rather than super easy setting, says Grant Spencer. Spencer, Adjunct Professor at Victoria University's School of Economics and Fina...

Of Interest: In this episode Gareth Vaughan discusses the progress the New Zealand central bank is making on its digital currency development with Ian Woolford. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) considering launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is in part a defensive move to protect it and NZ's monetary sovereignty, says RBNZ Director of Money and Cash Ian Woolford. The RBNZ is one...

Dipping our toes into the world of podcasting, we look at whether it would be possible and/or desirable to engineer a housing market correction. That means a deliberate move by the government, with the cooperation of the Reserve Bank, local government and banks, to push house prices down. Such a move would require a government prepared to see house prices fall by a significant amount. We look at w...