We have enjoyed rising reader support in 2022 and for that we are very grateful. More readers than ever came to read our coverage of the New Zealand economy and the forces that influence it.
It was a rocky ride for the economy in 2022 as we transitioned out of the pandemic status and learned to live with its consequences. The pandemic hasn't actually gone away, but its initial virulence has waned and we have built some sort of tolerance to it. The progression from the initial 2020 onset to the live-with-it status in late 2022 has been handled well by everyone, for most showing a maturity that should stand us in good stead for another new threat. Some of us claimed to be know-alls, but most of us learned a lot about how such emergencies are best handled.
Now is the time to celebrate what we have achieved as a community, and with the summer holidays upon us, that is an ideal time to take stock.
Here at interest.co.nz we are looking back on 2022 and seeing some impressive gains.
We are glad you have been with us and hope you will join us again in 2023.
In 2022 we published 2,801 articles, almost all of them original work. Plus we published countless updates to our deep resource pages, tables, calculators and charts.
The sharp rise in readership that built in 2020 has stayed with us and expanded in 2022. Many new readers joined us. To all of you, I say thank you for staying with us.
And to our supporters, our deepest gratitude to you - for without you, we would not be able to sustain our journalistic independence and focus. Your support not only enables our news reporting but also supports the research, data collection and technical expertise to keep the many plates spinning here at interest HQ!
If you are not already a supporter, you can become one here. The benefit of ad-free might be a valuable way to read our content.
At the start of 2022, the average two year mortgage rate was 4.21% and the one year term deposit rate was 2.13%.
But we are ending the year with these rates at 6.58% and 5.17% respectively. The fixed mortgage rate rose +237 bps in the year and the TD rate rose even more, up +304 bps, a relative change that might surprise some readers.
As a country, we have ended the year in reasonable economic shape and probably better than many (including me) thought at the start. But there is little doubt that storm clouds are building, helped along by a central bank that is determined to quash inflation. As someone who lived though the 1980's inflation fights, ensuring it doesn't get embedded is a worthy objective. The later it is tackled that broader the pain.
It has been our wider coverage of the economic changes that have attracted new readers and kept current readers engaged.
New Zealand is not a large country. We have just 4 mln adults 18 years and older. And yet in 2022 more than 2.5 mln of them used our news reporting or data resources at least once during the year ("unique visits" were 3.2 mln but probably many readers accessed us from multiple devices).
Readers actually dialed up 25.3 mln pages of content, and more than in 2020 which was a level we thought would be a record which would stand for a long time. By any measure, that is a lot of content to deliver.
We aim to be an intelligent read for people who want to understand what is going on in our economy, and the outside forces that also shape it. Although we are still a desktop read to take full advantage of the tables, charts and other embedded resources we offer readers, readership on mobile and tablets has stayed high at almost 60%. What is remarkable about the use of our service on mobile is that engagement time of the small screen is high - in fact, it is slightly higher than for desktop, showing that intelligent analysis does have a place on a smartphone.
We appreciate your support of our live-and-free service, and we wish everyone Happy Holidays and good weather where ever you are. If you value what you get for "free", we would appreciate your support via our Press Patron facility at the top of this page. (Obviously what we do costs heaps, and advertising is a fickle revenue stream. Your support is valuable beyond what you may realise.)
Although most of our staff are taking a break as well, we will have daily updates and some unique content in our regular style.
International financial markets may get 'interesting' in January and we will be covering that and what it means for New Zealand.
In the meantime, here are the ten articles that readers read the most in 2022:
10. David Chaston's July report that ANZ is the first main Aussie bank to offer 4% for a one year deposit as it raises TD rates
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/116931/anz-first-main-bank-…
9. Jenée Tibshraeny's April look at how the interest rates banks use to stress test mortgage applicants are due to rise
https://www.interest.co.nz/borrowing/115491/closer-look-how-interest-ra…
8. David Hargreaves September report of BNZ warning, saying the RBNZ should not be increasing its forecasts of how high the Official Cash Rate might go
https://www.interest.co.nz/bonds/117777/bnz-economists-warn-global-rece…
7. David Chaston's June report of the arrival of a 4% one year term deposit rate
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/116210/first-time-almost-se…
6. David Hargreave's summary of a March Capital Economics report that said our housing markets look vulnerable to 'even a modest rise' in interest rates rateshttps://www.interest.co.nz/property/115057/independent-global-economic-…
5. David Hargreave's October report of the nasty rise in Q3 CPI inflation
https://www.interest.co.nz/business/118044/searing-domestic-inflation-6…
4. David Hargreave's October report of the rush by boomers to withdraw KiwiSaver funds
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/117857/fma-says-over-65s-wi…
3. Greg Ninness's April report of the first signs the REINZ HPI was starting to fall quickly
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/115362/reinz-house-price-index-alre…
2. David Hargreaves July report of the collapse in residential construction sentiment in the gloomy ANZ Business Outlook Survey
https://www.interest.co.nz/business/116935/collapse-residential-constru…
and the most read article of 2022 was
1. David Chaston's report of the sharp Septmeber mortgage rate increases from ANZ following the preceding drive higher in wholesale swap rates
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/117670/new-zealands-largest…
Our resource pages continue to far outstrip our news article readership and these resources continue to grow impressively. Of note in 2022 is the growth of our auction monitoring database. This now rivals our huge mortgage rate database activity. Many of our regular resources like our dairy industry payout history page, auction results, bonds data, and calculator pages, as examples, all were far more popular than almost any news article. Your ability to dig into the data behind the news is what makes us special.
And finally, much of our service would not have been possible without the active support of the many readers who do so via the PressPatron platform. To you an extra special thanks again for all your support in 2022. Ad revenues remain particularly fickle and will always be a problem for us, so your direct support has enabled us to invest in the service in 2022 in significant ways. What you see and use is significantly enabled by your active support.
We are looking forward to next year.
Enjoy your holiday break. See you again in 2023.
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.