Maybe tomorrow will be 33rd time lucky

Newmarket Business Association

Media Release

6.30pm - Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Maybe tomorrow will be 33rd time lucky for consumers?

With Dr Bollard not likely to cut interest rates tomorrow morning it will be the 33rd consecutive time the Reserve Bank has either held or hiked the Official Cash Rate*, and without doubt that has worn down consumers, says Auckland's leading shopping district.

“Dr Bollard has not dropped the OCR since 24 July 2003*. This blunt instrument has been effective in slowly wearing down consumers.

"However like reformed naughty children, shoppers' behaviour no longer needs to be corrected. In fact if anything they probably now need some encouragement. Maybe Dr Bollard could tomorrow signal some sweets, in the form of interest rate relief sometime over the next six months? That would go down a treat," said Cameron Brewer, general manager of the Newmarket Business Association tonight.

"We all very confident that Dr Bollard will not raise the Official Cash Rate tomorrow - that would be the fifth raise in a row and would be totally unneccessary. Statistics New Zealand retail figures released last month showed that things are pretty flat across the country.

"Hiking up interest rates to slow down out-of-control consumers is no longer required. That may have been the case for the first quarter of this year, but the second and third quarters have proved to be quite different," said Mr Brewer.

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