TLDL & TLDR: The Govt floated the idea last night of building a ring of checkpoints around Auckland before Christmas to check summer travellers for double vaccination certificates and negative test results. PM Jacinda Ardern said it would encourage vaccinations.
Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said double-vaxxed-and-tested Aucklanders wanting to leave may have to apply ‘MIQ-style’ for a time slot to avoid snarlups at the internal border. The Opposition said the Govt had “lost the plot.”
The US Federal Reserve announced at 7am NZT it will start tapering its money printing and bond buying programme later this month and finish by mid-2022, citing elevated inflation pressures that were “largely reflecting factors that are expected to be transitory.” This is slightly tougher language than its previous comment that inflation was transitory. Markets had expected a mid-2022 end to the taper. Stocks rose slightly on the news meeting expectations.
Elsewhere in the political economy, Simplicity and NZ Living announced plans to build 10,000 build-to-rent homes over the next decade. Coming up later today and tonight, I’ll be watching out for a Bank of England rate hike and reaction to the news of the Fed’s taper.
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