The proportion of the population participating in the labour force reached record levels in 2015 and labour force growth has averaged about 2 percent per year since 2012, well above expectation (Figure 1). The Reserve Bank has undertaken considerable research over the past year on the impact of migration, labour market slack, and wage bargaining by New Zealand businesses.
I will discuss what we have learned and the implications for monetary policy. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  To cut to the chase, recent low consumer price inflation can be mostly explained by falls in commodity prices and the high New Zealand dollar.