Even before that May Statement was published, the Government had sharply increased the tax on cigarettes, adding around 14 per cent to their price. Within hours of the publication of that May Statement, the trade-weighted measure of the New Zealand dollar had depreciated close to its lowest level in history.
We will also play an important role in supervising new technologies used by banks, such as Artificial Intelligence. Crypto-asset, like bitcoin and many other, are a case in point. We and other central banks have been monitoring crypto-asset developments closely over the past years.