Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on inflation reaching 3 percent in the year to September

Recent data shows inflation reached three percent in the year to September, and it's prompted concerns about the economy.

Stats NZ figures out today show the rate rose from 2.7 percent annually to June - hitting the top end of the Reserve Bank's target band.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says this is higher than what the Government was hoping for, and it's unclear what this could mean for the Reserve Bank.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry so Per, senior political correspondents with US Barry, Good afternoon, Heather.
Inflation at three percent totally expected, right, Well, it.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Was, wasn't it? And it is in the Reserve Bank's
target one to three percent. So three percent you've got
to say, well, you know, it's not great, and it's
more than what the government would have wanted I think,
and it really, I guess, raises a question about what
the Reserve Bank is going to do next month when
it looks at the OCR again, because three percent cutting

(00:31):
the OCR fuels spending fee through to inflation.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, sorry, it's going to cut.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I think it will cut, but it makes it difficult
for a government that wants to contain spending when you've
got this inflation rate running the way it is at
the moment.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
So my take on the labor fund that they've just
announced is that it's a fantastic idea, but they've taken
all the good stuff out of it.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, if you listen to Winston Peter, it was his
idea that he and it's.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
True apparently working on it with Grant Robertson.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
He had been and they'd looked at this idea, but
it never really got off the ground. The problem was,
and I think Chrishipkins was absolutely right that there were
no figures in this. They couldn't have an announce the
state owned enterprises that would be encompassed by this, because
as he in New Zealand for example, going to be

(01:24):
the dividends that they returned to the government. The point
that Chris Hipkins made six hundred million dollars comes into
the government from these sources. What are they going to do?
They normally spend it on health, education and whatever. So
what are Labor going to do with the money, and
how they're going to fund it, how they're going to
seed it At two hundred million dollars, it's meant to

(01:46):
be great for business if it's possible in terms of
financing it. But that hasn't been proven to a suggestion
at the news conferences afternoon that Labor's the same old
team that was biffed out of offers two years ago,
a leader Chris Hipkins pushed back, here he is with
his finance spokesman, spokes woman Barbara edmund.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Or, we don't have the same team, be act have
quite a different team. Barbara different, Barbara is different, and
Barbara's been the architecture of this policy and I absolutely
beck it because I think it is a different way
of thinking about how we use the huge s base
that the Crown has now to help grow New Zealand's
economy and grow opportunities for New Zealanders in the future.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
So for us, it's about in the last eighteen months
to listening to the electorate. You gave us a really
strong message you didn't want us to be in government.
So the last eighteen months our whole team has been
talking to communities, businesses, organizations up and down the country.
The number one thing that has constantly been said to
me is we want a long term vision and plan

(02:48):
for our country. The Future Fund is the first step
to that.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, but you know where is it going to come from?
Labor said that they referred a lot to them New
Zealand Super Fund set up by Michael Cullen. It's now
worth eighty five billion dollars. It's had returns of eleven
percent a year. But the problem with this particular fund,
when you compare it with that one, is that this

(03:13):
one will be totally internalized in New Zealand. They won't
be able to invest off seas, off sea overseas.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
So you know, that's what I mean, that's a great
idea that they just take all the good stuff out
of like they make it hard for the great idea
to actually bear fruit, right because that's too much, too
much red tape binding it. Anyway, Shane Jones, what's he
up to?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, he's of course in Sydney at the moment, promoting
New Zealand. It's a great mining mining mecca for natural resources.
So he's over there. Who'll been a conference, International Mining
and Resources conference apparently he's going to be held next
year here it's in Sydney this year. So Shane Jones

(03:55):
is talking up New Zealand. Then he's off to the
United States to another conference, International Mining and Resources Conference,
and so New Zealand's being sold. I don't think the
Greenies will be very happy about it, but that's what
he does.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, brilliant, Barry, Thanks very much. Barry Soper, Senior political correspondent.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
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