EconBulletin

This year I plan to have two or three guest commentaries. The first one is from Charles Waldegrave who with Peter King, both of the… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-143-February-2013

I guess it is inevitable that the first Bulletin of the year should have a look at the year ahead. The outlook is very mixed,… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-142-January-2013

The fifteenth round of negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will take place in Auckland over the next few days (3-12 December). It… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-141-November-2012

The government currently heavily subsidises feature films, with the best known example being the $100 million for the Hobbit. Yet it refuses to take any… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-140-October-2012

The Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University collects information on collective employment agreements which it reports on each year. Its 2012 report shows slower wage… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-139-September-2012

The report on household incomes, inequality and hardship prepared each year by the Ministry of Social Development was released this month. It showed that income… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-138-August-2012

Recently we’ve made submission on topics as varied as the relationship with Australia and protection of our bank deposits. This commentary covers some of the… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-137-July-2012

An affiliate asked how reliable Treasury’s wage forecasts are, after forecasts in the May Budget showed wages increasing nearly 50 percent faster than the inflation… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-136-June-2012

The media coverage of last week’s Budget has emphasised its petty nastiness such as the removal of the tax exemption for newspaper girls and boys,… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-135-May-2012

The Government’s Budget will be announced on 24 May. There have been surprisingly few pre-Budget announcements so far. The main one was that there will… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-134-April-2012

“Business facing” is how the Government is describing the latest round of public service restructuring. The spin will be “more jobs, higher wages”, but can… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-133-March-2012

We’re told that New Zealand has had an awful saving record, but that it’s now turning around. Is that true? Household debt grew hugely in… Read More »CTU-Monthly-Economic-Bulletin-132-February-2012