Welcome to the May 4 edition of the BNZ Weekly Overview.
This week we are once again running our monthly confidence survey so if you have a few seconds please click on the URL
below and tick whether you think the economy will get better or worse over the next 12 months. More importantly let us
know what you're seeing in your own industry at the moment and as usual we shall gather these various comments together
and they will form the bulk of our confidence survey release early next week.
With regard to major news items this week we have seen interest rates raised a quarter of a percent come across the
Tasman with prospects for Australian growth improving recently. Most data releases in the United States have been on the
positive side, and these two developments have helped push up wholesale fixed borrowing costs in New Zealand. The New
Zealand dollar has risen slightly against the greenback during the week but we have fallen against the Australian
currency to the lowest level since May 2002 near 83.2 cents.
SEE FULL BNZ WEEKLY OVERVIEW IN PDF FORMAT:
Best regards
Tony Alexander
Chief Economist