Alan Bollard Quotations

Further policy tightening may still prove necessary. Certainly, there remains no prospect of a cut in the foreseeable future.

Given the time it will take to bring inflation back towards the mid-point of the target band, we do not expect to be in a position to ease policy this year. Any earlier easing would require a more rapid reduction in domestic inflation pressures than the substantial slowing already assumed in our projections.

We now see the exchange rate as exceptionally high, and in some respects this is unjustifiable. In time, it will fall. Investors who think that the New Zealand dollar only goes up will be set for disappointment.

Whitebait is New Zealand's caviar and is special. Everybody likes eating whitebait, especially lightly cooked in fritters.

The prospect of further tightening may only be ruled out once a noticeable moderation in housing and consumer spending is observed, ... Certainly, we see no prospect of an easing in the foreseeable future if inflation is to be kept within the 1% to 3% target range on average over the medium term.

The decline in the exchange rate will either be gradual, as domestic spending pressures ease, or it will be more abrupt as global investors reassess New Zealand as an investment destination.

We have seen ongoing momentum in domestic demand and persistently tight capacity constraints, ... We remain concerned that inflation pressures are not abating sufficiently to achieve our medium-term target.

There's inflation activity in the system, there's cost and wage pressures in the system, and we need to see that abate before we're prepared to see interest rates come off.

The most serious risk to medium-term inflation is the continuing strength of household spending, supported by a relentless housing market and rapid growth in mortgage lending,

That's why we will keep making these warnings and if necessary take further action, ... can increase interest rates and we can do it in a way that really hurts.

The correction of these imbalances and associated inflation pressures will require a slowdown in housing, credit growth and domestic spending, ... We also expect a significantly lower exchange rate.