For many Kiwis, the past few years have been challenging. High interest rates, inflation, and the cost of living have hit households and businesses hard.
But the latest announcement from the Reserve Bank – a 50-basis point drop in the Official Cash Rate (OCR) is welcome news. It’s the third reduction since last August, and it brings the OCR down to 3.75 percent.
In simple terms, it means people will see more money in their pockets in the coming months. For homeowners with mortgages, lower interest rates are likely to bring down their repayments, so they have more money in their back pocket.
For many, this drop is not just about relief in the short term, but also a sense of stability. A drop of almost two percentage points over six months could make a tangible difference in what families and businesses can do with their finances.
It’s also a sign of growing confidence among businesses. A stable and more predictable economic environment encourages companies to invest, expand, and hire. BNZ and Business NZ have recently reported that manufacturing growth had risen its highest level since September 2022 – a clear sign that confidence is returning.
There are also encouraging sings amongst our hard-working farmers. The latest Federated Farmers Farm Confidence Survey shows confidence has surged 68 points since July 2024 – the largest improvement since the question was first introduced in 2016 – reflecting new optimism within the sector.
Economic growth is how we reduce the cost of living and help you and your family get ahead – and that’s what our Government is focused on doing.
I’ve also got good news to share in our Government’s continued drive to crack down on gangs and restore law and order.
It was three months ago that we passed our Gangs Act – banning the display of gang patches in public and giving Police more tools to crack down on the misery they cause our communities.
In these past three months Police have done an excellent job at enforcing this legislation, seizing 76 patches, 67 firearms, and laying 337 charges for insignia breaches.
We have also seen a 52 per cent increase in firearms seizures compared to the same period last year.
We passed these laws to improve public safety, and they have done exactly that. This is an essential part of ensuring there are 20,000 fewer victims of serious violent crime by 2029 alongside a 15 per cent reduction in serious repeat youth offending.
The latest crime statistics also show that our law-and-order crackdown is yielding results with violent crime falling in 2024 – the first time since 2018.
Total victimisations, assaults and serious assaults have all also fallen, and there were 24,000 fewer victims over the year ending October 2024 compared to June 2024.
Our new tools enabling Police to crack down on gangs have proved their worth, with the insignia ban enabling Police to net further charges on a raft of things including drugs and firearms.
We make no apologies for getting tough on gangs. This legislation is meant to be uncomfortable. If you don’t like it, don’t break the law, it’s that simple.
We know that there is more work to be done – and we will keep working hard to restore law and order so that you and your community can feel safe.
We’ve also been focused on lowering retail crime. Getting Police back out on the beat with 40 per cent more foot patrols, has seen aggravated robberies continue to drop and the upward trend in retail crime start to slow.
We recognise we have more to do in this area, and Minister Goldsmith has been working with the sector to determine how we can reduce retail crime and introduce tougher deterrents. You’ll see more on this shortly.
In the meantime, the National-led Government will keep working hard to drive economic growth to ease the cost of living and create more jobs and restoring law and order so that you and your community can feel safe.
-Hon Chrispher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand
