Political & Economic week ahead: Are we on a credit card spending spree?
Rob Hosking gives his in-depth analysis on the big stories to watch out for this week. With special audio feature.
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Local Govt
Casting a small, barely noticeable shadow over the economic week is the latest credit card data, which shows New Zealanders could be on a spending spree again.
The latest figures showed a 2.3% increase over the previous month. That is the largest monthly increase for two years, and is not a small increase – the most recent increase was 0.5% rise.
Given the current existing debt levels, this return to spending will not be welcome to the policy makers in either the government or the Reserve Bank.
Other economic data coming this week is the latest terms of trade: one of the most important signals for New Zealand's place in the economic world and which can be expected to show a drop from recent levels driven by commodity price falls, not just dairy but also oil.
And, politically, those dairy prices will be casting a pall over the week as well. There is rising pressure within the political sector for some sort of assistance to dairy farmers, who could see a further season of below-profit returns. And with Parliament returning this week, Finance Minister Bill English will face questions about the effect this will have on the economy, as well as over his comments which last week on NBR ONLINE, which appear to suggest he thinks the Reserve Bank might need to cut interest rates.
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NBR Radio
Mon, 29 Feb 2016
Mon, 29 Feb 2016
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Political & Economic week ahead: Are we on a credit card spending spree?
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