It is perhaps difficult to appreciate the sheer variety and breadth of everything the Bank does, given the many essential tasks it carries out in the public interest. In compliance with transparency requirements and legal obligations, the Bank provides an account of its work in the Report on Operations and Activities which, as is now customary, is published today together with the Annual Report.
However, my concern is that - forgive me pinching a great line - New Zealanders’ “irrational exuberance” for getting into debt, in the hope of making money out of now non-existent inflation, is still distorting the New Zealand economy. So, the question remains, why that passion for debt to finance speculative real estate?