2019: The economy in a nutshell

What lies ahead for our economy this year?

Economists have been pleasantly surprised with the way the country’s economy is trucking along. Growth is stronger and lasting longer than expected, as seen in the Government’s most recent fiscal update.

But rising wages, Wall St jitters, and trade war fears could put a dent in our exports and strong employment, begging the question: will 2019 be the year the wheels fall off? real prospect of record low interest rates – possibly well below 4 per cent in some cases’’.

And that finds some agreement from BNZ economist Tony Alexander, who is expecting interest rates to remain low.

He said the downward pressure on interest rates was coming from slowing world growth, falling oil prices, weak wages growth, and a fresh decline in businesses planning to put their prices up.

For investors, this meant they would have to continue to seek out higher-paying investments than the bank. exceptionally tight and there are jobs aplenty.

‘‘For our standard of living to rise, we need to see a shuffling of the valuable labour resource from low profit areas to higher profit ones.

‘‘Higher wages, the price of labour, are the mechanism through which these growth boosting changes occur in a capitalistic economy.’’

Certainly the job markets is trucking along well at present, and online job adverts grew 9.7 per cent over the last year.

Consumer confidence studies also suggest Kiwis are feeling relatively good. A net 14 per cent expected conditions to improve over the coming year, the highest level since March.