July 14 issue of the BNZ Weekly Overview

Welcome to the July 14 issue of the BNZ Weekly Overview.

This week we have learnt that the NZ economy grew twice as fast as thought during the March quarter and 0.5% during the December quarter rather than 0.2%. We?ve also seen strengthening data for house sales and prices, a firm lift in spending using debit and credit cards, still high sentiment in our monthly BNZ Confidence Survey with the tone of comments tending to improve, and clear evidence of first home buyers entering the real estate market with pricing perceptions turning upward.

Unsurprisingly then with this news set against a backdrop of growing signs of slowing in Australia, continuing bad news about debt and credit ratings in Europe, and worries about the US getting so bad more printing of money is being contemplated, the NZD has shot up. Today it traded above US 85 cents, near 52.5 pence, and an eight month high against the Aussie dollar. While in the short term high volatility is likely the trend is likely to remain up for an extended period of time, especially once monetary policy is tightened from December and now possibly as early as September.

This week at www.tonyalexander.co.nz we have posted the results of our monthly BNZ Confidence Survey as well as the BNZ-REINZ Residential Market Survey. We had 742 licensed real estate agents reply to the latter survey and that has allowed us to present information at 29 sub-national areas.

Click here for the full report (pdf)

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