Despite the air of progress and calm in New Zealand, many other commodity-based economies are in strife, reports ANZ

In an ANZ morning briefing, the bank has pointed out some big shifts in international investor sentiment sweeping markets today.

Risk appetites for emerging markets are being pulled back fast.

Although commodity prices are holding, there are some very real stresses building for a lot of important economies. In fact, they report a British bank warning that "Russian banks are fighting for liquidity".

And, despite the recent gains, a senior and respected German ex-policymakers is still warning that problems loom for the eurozone.

ANZ's view of what this means for New Zealand was summed up like this:

In the past few days we have seen Thailand declare a state of emergency in Bangkok, China’s PMI fell below 50, a circa 15% collapse in the Argentine peso, and there is talk of a liquidity squeeze in Russia. It all sounds very 1990s: we have been here before.

At the margin, it is all negative news for a small open economy like NZ that is highly dependent on trade with the rest of the world. At this early stage, what is going on offshore doesn’t look to have enough of a head of steam, or enough plurality (in terms of there being hotspots in selected pockets, rather than what’s going on being a universal issue) to derail the growth or policy outlook here. But it bears watching, particularly given that in many ways, New Zealand is “going it alone” in the developed world growth stakes.

As a nation, we don’t have enviable debt or productivity statistics, but we are growing strongly and interest rates are set to rise. Had EUR (clearly a key barometer for euro sentiment) not been rallying, we suspect NZD would be on the skids.

The risks out of all this for the NZD are clearly to the downside, but for now, the domestic story and EUR strength ought to provide a buffer.