[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nzb/nzbbul/dec20105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New Zealand’s imbalances in a cross-country context

Author

Listed:
  • Daan Steenkamp

    (Reserve Bank of New Zealand)

Abstract
New Zealand’s current account deficit is the counterpart of a low rate of national saving relative to domestic investment. Persistent current account deficits have led to the build-up of a large net international investment position (NIIP) financed largely through foreign debt with short maturity. Dependence on foreign capital makes New Zealand vulnerable to changes in the availability and cost of external financing, although New Zealand has not added to this vulnerability by taking on currency risk. Debt maturity has lengthened over the recent past in response to market pressure and the Reserve Bank’s Prudential Liquidity Policy. Apart from New Zealand’s financial vulnerability, high debt levels threaten to weigh on economic growth by raising interest rates and crowding out private investment. A strong fiscal position in the run-up to the global crisis served to allay concerns over New Zealand’s credit worthiness, but the government’s finances have deteriorated in the wake of the crisis. It would therefore be prudent to improve the fiscal position sooner rather than later. Faster fiscal consolidation would also contribute to the required rebalancing of the economy towards higher saving and exports. This article considers New Zealand’s imbalances in a cross-country context in order to highlight sources of vulnerability.

Suggested Citation

  • Daan Steenkamp, 2010. "New Zealand’s imbalances in a cross-country context," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 73, pages 37-49, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nzb:nzbbul:dec2010:5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/ReserveBank/Files/Publications/Bulletins/2010/2010dec73-4Steenkamp.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emmanuel De Veirman & Ashley Dunstan, 2008. "How do Housing Wealth, Financial Wealth and Consumption Interact? Evidence from New Zealand," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2008/05, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
    2. Grant M. Scobie & Katherine Henderson, 2009. "Saving Rates of New Zealanders: A Net Wealth Approach," Treasury Working Paper Series 09/04, New Zealand Treasury.
    3. Anthony Makin & Wei Zhang & Grant Scobie, 2009. "The contribution of foreign borrowing to the New Zealand economy," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 263-278.
    4. Garry Tang & Christian Upper, 2010. "Debt reduction after crises," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    5. Anella Munro & Rishab Sethi, 2007. "Understanding the New Zealand current account: A structural approach," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2007/10, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
    6. Emmanuel De Veirman & Ashley Dunstan, 2012. "Debt Dynamics and the Relationship Between Consumption and Cyclical Wealth Changes," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(282), pages 330-340, September.
    7. Iris Claus & Grant Scobie, 2002. "Saving in New Zealand: Measurement and Trends," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/02, New Zealand Treasury.
    8. Paul Bedford, 2008. "The global financial crisis and its transmission to New Zealand – an external balance sheet analysis," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 71, December.
    9. Mizuho Kida, 2009. "Financial vulnerability of mortgage-indebted households in New Zealand - evidence from the Household Economic Survey," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 72, pages 5-12, March.
    10. Rebecca Craigie & Anella Munro, 2010. "Financial sector amplification and credit cycles in New Zealand," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 73, pages 15-34, June.
    11. Sebastian Edwards, 2006. "External Imbalances in an Advanced, Commodity-Exporting Country: The Case of New Zealand," NBER Working Papers 12620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Natalie Labuschagne & Polly Vowles, 2010. "Why are Real Interest Rates in New Zealand so High? Evidence and Drivers," Treasury Working Paper Series 10/09, New Zealand Treasury.
    13. Kim, Kunhong & Hall, Viv B. & Buckle, Robert A., 2006. "Consumption-smoothing in a small, cyclically volatile open economy: Evidence from New Zealand," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1277-1295, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jean-Pierre Andre, 2011. "Economic Imbalances: New Zealand's Structural Challenge," Treasury Working Paper Series 11/03, New Zealand Treasury.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philip R. Lane, 2011. "External Imbalances and Macroeconomic Policy in New Zealand," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp376, IIIS.
    2. Philip R. Lane, 2013. "External imbalances and macroeconomic policy," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 53-70, April.
    3. Trinh Le & John Gibson & Steven Stillman, 2010. "Household Wealth and Saving in New Zealand: Evidence from the Longitudinal Survey of Family, Income and Employment," Working Papers 10_06, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    4. Julie Fry, 2014. "Migration and Macroeconomic Performance in New Zealand: Theory and Evidence," Treasury Working Paper Series 14/10, New Zealand Treasury.
    5. Anthony Makin & Wei Zhang & Grant Scobie, 2009. "The contribution of foreign borrowing to the New Zealand economy," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 263-278.
    6. Chris Hunt, 2008. "Financial turmoil and global imbalances: the end of Bretton Woods II?," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 71, September.
    7. Sebastian Edwards, 2006. "External Imbalances in an Advanced, Commodity-Exporting Country: The Case of New Zealand," NBER Working Papers 12620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Bryce Wilkinson & Trinh Le, 2008. "Is poor household saving the cause of New Zealand's high current account deficit?," Macroeconomics Working Papers 22024, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    9. Jean-Pierre Andre, 2011. "Economic Imbalances: New Zealand's Structural Challenge," Treasury Working Paper Series 11/03, New Zealand Treasury.
    10. Anella Munro & Rishab Sethi, 2006. "The Present Value Model and New Zealand’s Current Account," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2006/12, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
    11. Miles Workman, 2015. "Estimating the Cyclically- and Absorption-adjusted Fiscal Balance for New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 15/09, New Zealand Treasury.
    12. Ashley Dunstan & Hayden Skilling, 2015. "Commercial property and financial stability," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 78, pages 1-10, March.
    13. Wu, Po-Chin & Liu, Shiao-Yen & Pan, Sheng-Chieh, 2013. "Nonlinear bilateral trade balance-fundamentals nexus: A panel smooth transition regression approach," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 318-329.
    14. Andrzej Rzonca & Piotr Cizkowicz, 2014. "The effects of unconventional monetary policy: what do central banks not include in their models? / Skutki niekonwencjonalnej polityki pieniê¿nej: czego banki centralne nie uwzglêdniaj¹w swoich modela," mBank - CASE Seminar Proceedings 131, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    15. Douglas Sutherland & Peter Hoeller, 2012. "Debt and Macroeconomic Stability: An Overview of the Literature and Some Empirics," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1006, OECD Publishing.
    16. David Law & Grant M. Scobie, 2018. "KiwiSaver and the accumulation of net wealth," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 1-20, January.
    17. Mikael Juselius & Claudio Borio & Piti Disyatat & Mathias Drehmann, 2017. "Monetary Policy, the Financial Cycle, and Ultra-Low Interest Rates," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 13(3), pages 55-89, September.
    18. Vratislav Izák, 2014. "Private and Public Debt," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(1), pages 4-21.
    19. Dalina Amonhaemanon, 2015. "The Impact of Stock Price and Real Estate Price Shocks on Consumption: The Thai Experience," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(1), pages 137-148, January.
    20. Richard Fabling & Lynda Sanderson, 2010. "Exporting and performance: Market entry, expansion and destination characteristics," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2010/07, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nzb:nzbbul:dec2010:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Knowledge Centre (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rbngvnz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.