As New Zealand closed its borders and prepared to go into level 4 lockdown, predictions of economic doom flew. ANZ said it expected unemployment to reach 11 per cent and house prices to drop 15 per cent. But four months on, economists say the situation is better than expected and many of those predictions have already been revised. Mike Jones, an economist at ASB, said the economy had “bounced out of lockdown in a perkier state than most expected”. “The better-performing economy and extension to the wage subsidy have seen us gradually nudge down our unemployment forecasts in the months since lockdown.

Source: Stuff July 30, 2020 17:02 UTC