The next little while is going to be tough going for a lot of Kiwi businesses, but goods manufacturers and raw materials suppliers are in for a particularly rough ride. Squirrel guest blogger, Rodney Dickens, explains how being hit by falling buyer demand on multiple fronts will mean a harsher recession for these businesses than most.
With a falling number of listings, booming immigration and an end to rising mortgage interest rates, is FOMO starting to creep back into the New Zealand housing market?
First home buyers are returning to the market despite higher mortgage interest rates. Even so, there is still no sign of a lift in buying by investors. So will 2024 shape up to be a good year for buyers?
There is an increasing number of signs pointing to a turnaround in the housing market, and quite possibly even gains in house prices and sales. However, the question remains: What factors are driving this shift to happen sooner than anticipated?
There’s a pretty unanimous sense across the financial markets right now that there's another Official Cash Rate (OCR) hike in store for us this week. Chief Squirrel, David Cunningham, says that's the last thing we need.
Between a weakened construction sector, increasing migration and more businesses starting to retrench (both of which are helping to ease pressure in the job market), there are lots of signs out there to indicate that inflation’s coming under control. So, will there be another OCR increase?
With a great number of construction related businesses going into liquidation every week, negatives dominate in the house building sector and buyers need to apply extra caution as they contemplate getting a house built.
Even some of NZ's smartest economic minds hadn't picked that this latest spike in interest rates would be quite as swift and brutal as it's been. But according to Rodney Dickens, the writing was on the wall for all to see - so why weren't Kiwi borrowers warned?
Earlier today, the Reserve Bank made its second Monetary Policy announcement of 2023, opting to push through another double increase, and take our Official Cash Rate (OCR) from 4.75% up to 5.25%. So what does this latest OCR outcome mean?
The Reserve Bank has played things pretty much as expected with today’s Official Cash Rate (OCR) announcement, pushing through a 0.50% hike to take us from 4.25% to 4.75%.
While housing markets move in cycles, there is something very different about this downward leg of the housing cycle. But with the endgame upon us, will house prices stop falling?
Two week’s ago expectations for interest rate changes in New Zealand took a leap up in response to the June quarter inflation number coming in 0.5% higher than anticipated. This is a very rare event and the signal it has sent is that the pace of growth in our economy is too strong for the Reserve Bank to be confident of containing inflation below 3%.