BNZ Weekly Overview - Mayt 13 2005

BNZ Confidence Survey

This week we are again running our highly valued confidence survey and issue the usual invitation for people to submit comments on their particular industry. Feedback on this survey has been very positive to date and one can look through the responses to get perhaps a better feel for what businesses are doing and experiencing than the numerical results produced by other surveys. To access the survey and have your say please click on the url below:

http://www.closer.co.nz/bnzeconomist.asp

Close off time for comments is this Monday night. We will release the compiled comments on Tuesday - hopefully in the morning.

The Week Gone By

It has been an interesting week with some mild downward pressure on the NZD from the Foot and Mouth news, weaker than expected jobs data for the March quarter, and absence of a fresh acceleration in wages growth in March quarter data. Our monthly BNZ debit and credit card data have showed us that retail spending recovered about 0.8% in April after easing 0.5% in March, suggesting some flattening in consumer spending after a splurge in the first two months of the year. The week's data will have taken some of the pressure off the Reserve Bank to tighten monetary policy come June 9, but the risk of another tightening remains and we expect them to be wary of inflation consolidating at a high level all this year. So the currency respite to US 72.6 cents could be short-lived.

Weekly Overview Viewable Here:
http://www.bnz.co.nz/About_Us/1,1184,3-29-319,00.html

ENDS

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