i

Economic Weekly: Time will tell

  • The RBNZ’s quarterly Monetary Policy Statement showed minor tweaks to the economic forecasts, with most of the changes being around heightened concern on the risks to these forecasts.
  • Time will ultimately tell which risk becomes reality and hence the direction of the OCR.
  • On last week’s super-strong labour market report, we conclude that time will also tell on the underlying state of the labour market and the economy, as the outcome doesn’t quite fit with other signals we are seeing in the economy.

Contact us

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.