Economic Weekly: A tactical win for Breman, a strategic loss for Trump
- Last week, the RBNZ held the OCR at 2.25%, as was universally expected. The conditional OCR projection was lifted relative to the November MPS, signalling a 25bp hike in December
- We think Governor Breman’s debut against the NZ inflation dragon has been valiant, and the RBNZ can record this as a tactical win. Developments on the pricing side of the economy will dictate whether this was a policy win too
- Over the weekend, President Donald Trump's unilateral tariffs set under IEEPA were struck down by the Supreme Court. This doesn’t stop Trump from enforcing tariffs, but it does significantly slow the process. For now, the stable genius has responded by enforcing a unilateral 15% tariff on all global US goods imports which needs Congressional approval after 150 days. Fasten your seatbelts – a trade rollercoaster awaits
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Mark Smith
Senior Economist
Mark joined ASB in 2017, with over 20 years of public and private sector experience working as an economist in New Zealand and the UK.
His resume includes lengthy stints at ANZ and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and he has also worked at the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the New Zealand Transport Agency. Mark's areas of specialisation include interest rate strategy, macro-economic analysis and urban economics.
Born and bred in the Waikato, Mark studied at Waikato University where he graduated with a Master of Social Sciences, majoring in Economics.
Mark's key strengths are the ability to use his extensive experience, inquisitive nature, analytical ability, creativity and pragmatism to dig a little deeper and to deliver common sense solutions to tackle complex problems.
When not at work Mark likes to travel, keep fit and spend time with his friends and family.
- Email: Mark