Around 10,000 homes need to be completely rebuilt and a further 12,000 require major repairs (greater than $ in value).3 The physical shortage of housing in Christchurch has been exacerbated by the extra demand for accommodation by construction workers. This has resulted in annual rent inflation of about 11 percent in Christchurch, compared to 3.5 percent in the rest of New Zealand. 6.
But even before then, Lithuania’s monetary policy was constrained by a fixed exchange rate: from 1994 to 2002 the litas was pegged to the US dollar. The Chairman of the Board of Lietuvos bankas, Vitas Vasiliauskas, has already participated twice as an observer in the monetary policy meetings of the ECB’s Governing Council.