Political & Economic week ahead: flag debate and the GDP
NBR Political & Economics Editor Rob Hosking gives his in-depth analysis on the big stories to watch out for this week on NBR Radio and on demand MyNBR Radio.
Parliament rises this week for the school holidays and the political scene is currently digesting the government’s loss of control of the flag debate.
Very much the personal project of Prime Minister John Key, National has made a big mistake over the issue by trying to control it too tightly.
While a fern motif makes much sense for New Zealand, given the history, the government’s decision to try to skew the referendum, with three fern choices and a fern-based frond, has been taken by many New Zealanders as an insult to their intelligence, and a backlash – even among people not necessarily hostile to the government – is growing.
On the economic front, this week sees two signals pointing in different directions.
Net immigration hit a new record at 60,300. This runs counter to forecasts by both the Treasury and the Reserve Bank that net immigration would be starting to slow.
It means housing pressures in Auckland are not going to ease any time soon but it also means that perhaps the economic slowdown is not as sharp as is being signalled elsewhere.
The latest Westpac consumer confidence survey shows a fall but not as much as many were expecting – confidence fell further in 2012, a year which ended up seeing more than 3% growth in GDP.
Rather, the drop in the headline figure seems more an indicator of political mood – as consumer confidence surveys often can be.
A further pointer to this is that the biggest drop is among consumers in the top income bracket.
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NBR Radio
Mon, 21 Sep 2015
Mon, 21 Sep 2015
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Political & Economic week ahead: flag debate and the GDP
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