Economic Weekly: The Big Bang Theory
- It is hard to get much more of a contrast than the one we saw last week between the RBNZ and RBA interest rate decisions
- The RBNZ was very much still of the opinion that the ‘least regret’ option is to keep lifting interest rates rapidly, while the RBA opted for a ‘wait and see’ approach
- The 50bp hike by the RBNZ last Wednesday, which now puts the OCR at 5.25%, was quite a surprise: every major economist (ourselves included) had picked a 25bp increase, and markets had 27bps priced in
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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
