Welcome to the March 16 edition of the BNZ Weekly Overview.
Things have been quite interesting this week with monetary policy standing still last Thursday, then immediately after
that data appearing showing weak retail spending over the past three months and the housing market coming off the boil
at a fairly rapid rate. We discuss the implications for monetary policy in the Interest Rates section and in the
Exchange Rates section look at how the data have impacted on the Kiwi dollar. We lead off by running through reasons why
the business sector is so pessimistic at the moment with attitudes at far more recessionary levels than we economists
consider realistic.