US President Ronald Reagan is famous for repeatedly using the phrase “trust, but verify”, underscoring the importance of testing assumptions to confirm that claims are true. It’s a phrase that economists also keep in mind when dealing with a vast array of different datasets. Read

2024 has been a challenging year for the economy, and although Infometrics has been sailing the same choppy waters as our clients, we’d like to focus on the positives as we pause for the summer break and reflect on the past 12 months. Read

Chief Forecaster Gareth Kiernan has penned Infometrics’ traditional Christmas Carol. Sung to the tune of Perry Como's Christmas song “It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas”. Read

Economic figures aren’t always the most interesting or entertaining, but they are important to monitor how broader trends evolve and what they mean for different groups. But sometimes, various datasets can be put to more fun use. For our last Chart of the Month for 2024, we look into Christmas costs... Read

Employment has fallen over the last year, as businesses across New Zealand have seen lower sales and falling business activity, and moved to right-size their workforces for the work on offer. But the fall in employment hasn’t been spread evenly across all industries, with some seeing a steeper drop in activity and a steeper drop in jobs. Read

Infometrics has recently added a number of environmental indicators to the Regional Economic Profile and Quarterly Economic Monitor, including estimates of carbon emissions. This article explores how we have constructed our estimates, and what insights can be gained from our analysis. Read

Te Pūkenga recently released an ITP Competition Report under an official information act (OIA) request. The report contains a trove of information and data about Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs) operating in each of New Zealand’s regions. I was surprised at the sheer number of TEOs in regions that have relatively small populations, which led me to wonder whether there would be benefits to having fewer TEOs. Read

In our October 2024 Chart of the Month, we explore the role of peer to peer (P2P) accommodation around the country, finding that P2P makes up more than a third of guest nights in some areas, and not in the tourism hotspots that you might expect. Read

Stats NZ released their latest subnational population estimates, providing us with an annual glimpse into how New Zealand’s population is growing around the country. In this article, we highlight the overall trends of the 2024 estimates and pull out interesting results from specific cities or districts. Read

We are introducing a new indicator for first home buyer activity – First Home Loans. This article explores first home buyer activity in the housing market from a few different angles and introduces our new measure. Read