The graph below, sourced from The Economist, illustrates the point well. New Zealand appears as an outlier. 13  The 11 topics are housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance. BIS central bankers’ speeches  11  What does this mean for international comparisons? International comparison of macroeconomic statistics is fraught with difficulties.
Differing methodologies and data sources means that, in some cases, statistics are not directly comparable, despite data being labelled the same. Analysts and policymakers are wise not to make much of smallish differences – and short-term changes in differences in incomes across countries, which can be substantially affected by the different shocks each country faces in the short-term.