Bob Edlin: The forecasters got it wrong, when looking into the past.....

The forecasters got it wrong, when looking into the past – but Willis is confident they are right to be bullish about future GDP

Finance Minister Nicola Willis presumably had hoped to brace Parliamentarians – and the public – for politically discomforting economic news from StatsNZ today.

Dennis Wesselbaum: How real-time data can lead to better decisions on everything....

How real-time data can lead to better decisions on everything from NZ’s interest rates to business investment

It is late July, and New Zealand is slowly receiving economic data from the June quarter. Inflation has hit a 12-month high, for example, confirming what many already suspected. But the country is still nearly two months away from getting figures on economic activity – namely, gross domestic product (GDP).

Brian Easton: The Economic Runup To The Election.

The Treasury released its budget economic forecasts. What do they say about the economy over the next four months?

Let me begin me with an irritation. One post-budget headline was ‘Treasury optimistic over recession risk in Budget 2023'. Treasury being optimistic is almost an oxymoron. They fire down the centre.

It is true that Treasury has lifted its forecast of economic activity (GDP) a little since its December 2022 exercise, reflecting stronger migration and tourism and the rebuild from the cyclones. Even so, it expects GDP per capita to fall fractionally between the June 2023 and June 2024 years. The next year is going to be tough, with some quickening of economic activity in the middle of 2024.