Economic Bulletin January/February 2025
Welcome to the January/February 2025 Economic Bulletin. In the feature article Craig surveys the backwards steps New Zealand has been making on child poverty reduction. In our main data updates, we cover wage growth, employment, social welfare, consumer inflation, household living costs, and retail trade. We also provide analysis of the latest statistics on migration, trade, and consumer and business confidence, and we look at the government accounts.
All up, the economic picture is mixed. On the one hand, real wages are catching back up to their 2020 levels and some data points indicate that economic activity is starting to slowly pick up again. On the other hand, unemployment is rising, as is the number of people on social welfare, and it is expected that these numbers will rise further through the first half of the year. Additionally, the cost of living remains very high, with many non-discretionary services, such as insurance, council rates, and rent, having increased markedly in price over the past year.
https://union.org.nz/economic-bulletin-january-february-2025/