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Live-streamed video from the December 2015 RBNZ press conference with Governor Graeme Wheeler

Live-streamed video from the December 2015 RBNZ press conference with Governor Graeme Wheeler

This news conference will start at 9:05 am.

Our report on what the December Monetary Policy Statement means is here.

The RBNZ OCR Statement is here.

Today's Monetary Policy Statement is here.

When the live news conference is finished we will place a video recording of it on this page as soon as it becomes available.

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

45 Comments

I'm glad the RBNZ has lowered the OCR, it was the right call, and helps reinstate confidence in the Governor Graeme Wheeler

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lol - forget the debt mountain, producer prices and spiraling housing costs .. as long as we have confidence in the RBG, she'll be right!

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I hear what you're saying. It's not just about confidence in the RBG, but I do believe giving credit where credit is due, and I think it was the right call.

The spiralling house prices are only in Auckland, and I don't think you can blame the RBNZ for that. More focus needs to be on the Auckland council. For example, why do building companies pay engineers to sign off work instead of using the council? Just one of many issues....

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You're right - I certainly don't blame the RBNZ for the rise in Auckland house prices, nor will it be their fault when they fall. As far as I can see - the OCR is impotent - monetary policy is impotent. To my mind, performance of the RBG will be measured on whether or not NZ depositors ever have to take a haircut. If any local deposit-taking institution fails - the blame rests solely with his office.

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dont be suprised to see the government of the day adjust OBR to have a minimum safe amount i.e $10000 guaranteed by the tax payer, if they dont they would be gone in the very next election

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So the bank's won't steal any of your first $10K - it's a certain vote winner.

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It's a bit off topic but I can tell you that the requirement for engineers report by council is not unique to Auckland. I have been building a house elsewhere and even basic, traditional construction needs engineers reports as the council building officers are completely unable or unwilling to sign off. What they are getting paid for is a mystery. Thousands of dollars completely wasted thanks to these spineless creeps and the engineers would have to be the greediest trade in the whole industry. God knows what they charge but it must be hundreds of dollars an hour - $800 for a page of school boy level arithmetic anybody could do in an hour or so. I asked if I could use an Indian based engineer and got laughed at! I know it sounds like a conspiracy but that's how it is.

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Cut and the NZ dollar rose. Silly currency markets had they priced in further cuts?

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No doubt with your vastly superior insight you made an absolute killing and are now a millionaire?

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I don't gamble.

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The dollar price increase might be more to do with Fonterra's announcement suggesting the milk price may be on the increase .... but don't worry, if the Fed raises rates, our dollar will slide down a little (maybe)

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MDM,why the snarkiness?

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This is terrible.

Im guessing the housing data that's about to come out is gonna show a decent drop in prices (not just the expensive properties selling skewing results/higher average)

Lower OCR is only going to exacerbate income inequality in NZ as it further encourages people to borrow money to speculate, which inflates asset prices.

In the global currency wars where its a race to the bottom, NZ was doing really well. Oh well, on the bright side, it could be worse, at least we arnt going to ZIRP like canada now or northen europe, and we arnt contemplating helicopter money like Finland...

I would be interested to hear from some of the educated readers here regarding how much pressure was there (at ocr=2.75%) on our currency from overseas inflows seeking our higher returns. What with Chinese outflows being greatly reduced, I guess the worst of it was over? This I dont know.

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we will join the race to the bottom as well...

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The big question now is will Grant Spencer be able to get a good night's sleep as a result of this decision.

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Presume you meant exacerbate?

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Wheeler and co spend a lot of time at these 'briefings' telling us how "difficult" their job is!

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Bernard looks a worried man at this briefing. Should we be worried too?

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No. Bernard is worried because he keeps predicting the sky will fall but everyone is tired of him crying wolf.

His followers must be like those death cultists who keep giving their guru 1 more chance to get the "end of the world" date right (but eventually the followers realize he is talking out his proverbial...).

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Bernard might be worried, 'cause he's thinking if he ever wants to buy back into the Auckland market, he may never be able to....

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i dont know about worried, but should you be aware - yes.

It would be prudent to be aware of the global trade/shipping slow down, commodity price falls, and soaring stock markets due to Fed/ECB/BOJ buying.

It would also be wise to grasp what role low interest rates have had on our global situation - not just recently, but in particular the last 30+ years. Low interest rates drive bad investment into non-productive things, such as the ghost cities in china, and they also result in speculation fueled asset bubbles. These dont just go away, the piper will be paid eventually.

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When you steal from one party to give to another, expect repercussions.

When you import problems, expect nothing else.

It ain't all about Awkland.

It is all about theory, not practice.

And they ain't got it right , yet. Emulating the rest of the world will not help.

Too many people sitting around pontificating, fixes nothing. And listening to this bunch, just proves it.

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Too little too late.

Sack Wheeler and give me his 1/4 of his salary to write a complex program to solve NZ's woes (hint: if CPI 2% increase OCR 25 bps).

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Problem is that program will make massive spikes and troughs. You need it to say if CPI 18 months from now 2.1% increase OCR 25 bps.
The complexity is then how do you tell what CPI in 18 months will be?

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Crystal ball gazing is how the RBNZ got us into the current mess. OCR is effective because it has instant impact (see ANZ floating rates drop today).

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only instant for people on floating what about all the fixed that have to break or wait

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Agree HeavyG :)

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Bernard asks a lot of questions. He should ask Mr Wheeler if he has jam on his toast in the morning.

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All these cuts are doing is creating house and asset price inflation, while wages stagnate making housing unaffordable for many.
I heard of more layoff's in the wine industry this morning, a trend that's going to be hard to reverse.

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I volunteer to drink more wine and do my bit for the industry.

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When asked about lack of wage growth - the Guv went into a diatribe about xyz econo-speak adjective/descripter wage rises due to various blah, blah, blah factors elsewhere in the economy .. although, of course, he didn't use the "D" word.

He should've just said that in his opinion everyone got a Clayton's pay rise. A far more honest answer.

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I recently stayed with a good friend in Blenheim Aj, the vinyards are pushing out further there. What a georgeous place it is now. I hope the industry isnt heading for more trouble.

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It's all an illusion Belle, they just keep adding a new lick of paint for appearance. The writing is on the wall.
http://wineindustryinsight.com/?p=63417

How are the calves doing? Got up toiTe Puke on Monday, drove by Landcorps new conversion, cold windy and dry, looks like a blunder of epic proportions.
I must talk to you sometime about how calves are the worst in a beef correction. My mate in California told me he got a hammering again at auction last week. Who is buying our beef at this price when in the good old USA it's doing this?
http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?p=d1&t=LC

http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?p=d1&t=FC

Meanwhile on the farm my new GV just came in at 2 mill ,for 250 acres up from 1.6, pity it's not big enough to make a living from.
MY friend in Napier told me today that his house has a gv of 410k ,he wants to sell, agent told him it's now worth 510 k.
In more New Pernot Rickard are having a clean out of staff, biit like a mini Anglo America, this is happening to often to just be a minor correction, something is wrong and it's got to be huge.
http://business.financialpost.com/news/mining/anglo-american-to-cut-850…
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12/08/bank-bonuses-canada_n_8751162.h…

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Funny that I just drove past the conversions between whakamaru and Tokoroa. It was cold blowing a gale and very dry. I thought also it was a blunder of epic proportions. Not only for them but every other farmer in the district. Tokoroa is getting drier and drier. Residents are remarking how bad the weather has been since those thousands of hectares of trees have been annihilated.

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I wouldn't worry about it Belle, hell all I've done is sit on my bum for 3 years and I've just made 400k tax free capital gain. All going swimmingly well down on the farm.
Just think how much Landcorp is making, be huge Christmas bonuses this year.

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I found Don Frazers comment in a local paper. Sounded rather ominous for the dairy boys. His advice, or part of it was to head down the local and commiserate with all the others in the same situation. Umm calves. Yip doin well. Be dropping in value with every gust of drying wind. Gosh I dont know what got into me this spring. A rush of madness. Never mind, they are looking really good and milk powder was a no brainer this year.
That link to the wine industry in California looked scary.

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Our new drink driving limits must be hammering wine sales in NZ. Happened when the lowered limits in France but we have gone even further.
Those California stats are for cases not bottles, thats a lake of wine.
Like I say we need to have a talk about risk management in the beef industry sometime, been a long time without needing to worry, it makes us all complacent. Now the USA is keeping 1mill cows back and over 700k heifers for breeding it's creating an artificial shortage and then it's all going to hit the fan at once.

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Fonterra not acting like a AA-rated company, says Fitch

http://www.afr.com/business/fonterra-not-acting-like-a-aarated-company-…?

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My nephew went to some auctions yesterday. 14 out of 17 passed in. I am not sure if there is much housing inflation occurring currently. He is still saving and is now looking to buy next year. According to him good houses are still selling well but rubbish houses are not. Those who bought rubbish houses at the top will be worried about where their values might be going.

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And so many rubbish houses out there Gordon. It might be easy to buy a rubbish house, but ah the nightmare as they age further. From my delve into real estate lately shear horror at the state of the nations housing.

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Belle houses are an expensive necessity. Many however do not maintain or update them because they do not have the money or are too tight or both. When the tide goes out you will see the badly maintained ones more clearly and they will be valued appropriately.

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Million Dollar Lemons
Was active in the property market on the North Shore pre-2000
Interested only in well built 3 bedroom houses (not palaces), on a section that was easy to maintain, not waterlogged in winter, and not in the bottom of a valley without sun - they were hard to find - could take up to 3 or 4 months to find one - 95% (of those on the market) were lemons - the owners of those pre-2000 lemons should have moved on by now and passed them on to someone else.
Yesterday's lemon is still today's lemon - regardless - and there were far too many of them
Look at the prices they're paying for North Shore lemons now - some people never learn

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And present investors are creating more lemons by the day.
I would lay this at the feet of investors, mainly recent arrivals who do not know (or care?) that owning a property for rent /empty still requires maintenance to keep its value.

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I discovered in Taupo quite a few landlords desperate to get out. They had bort between 8 and 10 years ago, the asking price was circa what they had paid back then. Most werent kept well, so viewing was off putting. Then there were the stats that came out in the local rag that out of 50 properties tested for P, more than 30 were positive. Recent upgrades had rapidly worn out. The materials used cheap. Appliances were buggered. But most surprising was the number of houses that had significant work done years ago that was not okayed by council.

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