Chris Hipkins has been quick to pivot to “bread and butter issues”, but he faces a daunting job to revive New Zealand’s economy.
| New Zealand’s fresh new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is pivoting his majority Labour government away from the patrimony of Jacinda Ardern and back to what he calls “bread and butter issues”. Inflation, law and order and worker shortages are chief among them.
The economy is severely supply constrained. Immigration has been sluggish to restart, and many of the settings have been micromanaged by Labour. Walking around any city or town here, there are many job ads up in shop and business windows.One of the contributors to higher food prices – besides the weather – has been farmers planting smaller crops because of the low prospect of getting enough labourers to help harvest the produce.
“We think the combination of the weaker-than-anticipated inflation and softer-than-expected labour market data should, from a consistency perspective, result in the Bank moderating its interest stance,” BNZ’s head of research, Stephen Toplis, wrote in a note on Wednesday. Among policies likely to hit the floor is a proposed merger of commercial state broadcaster TVNZ and non-commercial Radio New Zealand and an Auckland light rail system.
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