Dan Brunskill

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Dan Brunskill |Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves

The countdown is over: ACT Party leader David Seymour will be sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister at midday on Saturday. It’s a striking achievement for the 41-year-old career politician, who almost singlehandedly kept the party alive after its disastrous 2011 election result. John Banks, the sole surviving MP and leader by default, declared the ACT brand was past its “use-by date” and stepped down before the 2014 election.

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Dan Brunskill |Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves

Reserve Bank Assistant Governor Karen Silk says tariff policies could trigger a supply shock in New Zealand and lead the Monetary Policy Committee to pause or end its interest rate easing (lowering) cycle. This isn’t what the central bank expects—it sees the net effect as disinflationary—but it helps explain why it won’t commit to more rate cuts, even though the Official Cash Rate projection suggests they’re needed.

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Dan Brunskill |Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves

ANZ’s chief economist, Sharon Zollner, expects interest rates to fall further than the central bank's projections, which will be released on Wednesday afternoon. Speaking at a post-budget breakfast with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Zollner said her team had recently started forecasting additional cuts to the Official Cash Rate.

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Dan Brunskill |Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves

The Government's announcement that it would buy a 15% stake in any new gas field development came out of left field in an otherwise predictable Budget 2025. Perhaps that's why no one asked about it during the Budget lockup press conference. Willis eventually had to ask if anyone had a question for Resources Minister Shane Jones. But she needn’t have worried about the policy going unnoticed.

1 week ago | interest.co.nz | Dan Brunskill |Gareth Vaughan |David Hargreaves

Economy / news The Reserve Bank says it isn’t biased towards lowering the Official Cash Rate further after cutting it to 3.25% in a 5-1 vote on Wednesday 28th May 25, 7:58pm by Is this the end of the interest rate easing cycle? Reserve Bank (RBNZ) Governor Christian Hawkesby says policymakers are not necessarily leaning towards cutting the Official Cash Rate (OCR) further, after lowering it to 3.25% on Wednesday. RBNZ projections in the May Monetary Policy Statement show the benchmark...