Annual house price inflation measured on a three-month moving average basis is currently 10.9 and 7.4 percent in Auckland and Christchurch respectively, and 1.1 percent in the rest of New Zealand. We will have a clearer assessment when the February/March REINZ data is available. 4  Data on inventories, days-to-sell and sales all point to continued price pressures.
Business saving is, and has always been, greater than household saving because corporations set aside a large volume of income to replace aging equipment. Thus, the precipitous drop in the share of income that households save does not translate into a proportional drop in total private-sector savings.