Economic Weekly: Confidence on a roll

  • Business and consumer confidence continued to improve over July. This is a welcome development given the geopolitical backdrop and moves in oil prices over the month
  • Whether we see a continuation in August remains to be seen in this highly uncertain environment – and responses did sour as the month progressed
  • Nevertheless, we will be watching to see whether the resilience in confidence translated into actual activity data for July

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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.