TLDR: The Labour Government faces the prospect at next year’s election of house prices being down 22% from their peak and 10% below their pre-covid levels once adjusted for wage inflation, if ANZ’s latest forecasts pan out.
That would be on top of an unemployment rate rising towards 5% and inflation still above 6% if the Reserve Bank’s forecasts from last week also pan out. Re-election for a third term would be something of a political miracle for a Government already around two to five percentage points behind the Opposition in opinion polls.
Elsewhere in the news overnight and this morning here and overseas:
China ramped up its vaccination programme for the elderly and clamped down on anti-covid protests, encouraging investors hoping for an earlier covid-zero exit;
data showed inflation sliding for the first time in Spain and Germany; and,
a NIMBY in Auckland suburban Balmoral will fight to stop a townhouse re-development replacing this graffiti-ed dairy on character protection grounds, and with council officials’ support. Stuff
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc1bca2c3-6f75-414a-bacd-b62ffb8fd3df_1266x732.jpeg)
Back to wage-adjusted square one
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