Liam Dann: NZ Herald Business editor-at-large on the Fitch ratings agency casting doubt on NZ's economy

The Fitch ratings agency is casting doubts on New Zealand's economic future.

The agency is considering bringing down the nation's rating, amid concerns surrounding increased debt and low immigration flow.

NZ Herald Business editor-at-large Liam Dann unpacks the implications of this news. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather Dupleicy, Ellen Hither, this is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
We do not need a tool for the gender pay gap.
There is something called excel. We have ninety seven staff
and our HR does this simply on excel.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
I mean, let's be honest about it, right. What this
is is procrastinating, isn't it. It's I mean, what National
is doing is they're going, hey, look, we're doing something
about the gender pay gap while doing absolutely nothing by
buying time, which isn't great because what they're doing is
they're wasting the time of the people at the Ministry
of Women. And if the people at the Ministry of
Women have the time to dawdle like this, fire the

(00:34):
lot of them, Fire a lot of them, and stop
the virtue signaling. That's what's going on.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Nineteen past six, the Fitch Ratings Agency is mulling over
the state of New Zealand's economy, like I told you,
potentially thinking about a ratings downgrade. Liam dan is The
Herald's Business editor at large.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
And with us.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Now, hey, liamhi, what do you reckon our odds on
for a downgrade or not odds.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Or probably it's a great yarn from Deleeper Fonseca. It
does this desk and he's to the guy at Fitch,
and yes, they are. They are bit concerned when they
do their analysis because you know, everything's got a bit
worse and they're worried that the debt's going to be
higher and we're going to be in depers for longer.
So you know, it does put a bit of pressure
on the argument for those tax cuts given the conditions

(01:17):
we're in. Sort of, but I look at looking through it,
he's kind of saying, well, you know, they don't give
anything away about the stuff, but that it puts us
on the wrong side of the of the median for
double A rating, so that that's not necessarily you know,
being bad enough to be downgraded. You know, we're doing

(01:39):
a lot of reading between the lines. That is a
bit of a warning and it's you know, look at
those ratings are one of the few things that have
got people have people like me going, well, the things
aren't so bad. You know, we've still got our double
A plus rating actually, so we're the second best rating
you can get for credit around the world. We're not

(01:59):
quite true ballet like Australia, but we're you know, we're
sitting next to some other nations like the US and Taiwan,
and it's not a bad place to be. And of
course if the rating gets worse, then we have to
pay more for our foreign borrowing and that would potentially
put our interest rates up.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
So tell you what worried me in this lamb was
the fact that they think the good times are behind us,
Like the last ten years were great, the next ten
years not so great unless we can find a way
to make heaps more money out of other places, not
just China.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Right, Yeah, that was that was That was a worrying
But I mean, you can sort of talk about the
cycle we're in and the you know, when we get
out of deficit lightpst of stuff. But there was some
serious discussion there about the fact that the drivers of
the good times, I guess China and tourism boom and
dairy boom are sort of petering out, you know, and

(02:51):
that we need to find something else to charge our economy.
And you know, Crystal re Luxe and co. Talked about this,
and they know that they've got to get something going
with a bit more foreign direct investment and technology and
all those good things. But it's you know, one thing
to talk about. It's nothing to get it going. I
suppose China, we might, you know, might rebalance our relationship

(03:16):
there and get something out of this latest visit, but yeah,
who knows.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Fingers crossed, I'll take anything, Liam. Thank you, Liam Dan,
the Herald's Business editor at large.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
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