In the Minutes of the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee released today, members said this about immigrants:
"Upside surprises to, or greater than expected demand-side stimulus from, migration could sustain growth momentum for longer. More resilience in domestic demand could slow the pace of expected disinflation".
Do migrants "slow the pace of disinflation"? One of the UK's top economists, Prof Sir Steve Nickell, former Economics Head at Oxford & Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee Member, told a Parliamentary Select Committee:
"there is certainly a broad acceptance in the UK .. that immigration has had a tendency to reduce inflationary pressure"
Indeed the whole point of Chris Hipkins hiking immigration this past year was to relieve wage pressure due to huge skill shortages in NZ. Meanwhile in the US, Forbes reports "Economists say increasing immigration will reduce inflation".
However our Reserve Bank refuses to take responsibility for inflation by printing $50 billion & prefers to frame migrants. Yet immigrants expand the supply side of the economy, as well as increasing demand, and the evidence for nations like the UK & US is that the net of these two effects is disinflationary. The RBNZ should apologize for sticking the blame onto migrants & duping folks into believing they're a cause of high interest rates. It's one thing to blame the weather & Putin for our inflation, but throwing immigrants into the mix is out of order. Whipping up anger at migrants by falsely claiming they increase demand without making up for it by also being productive citizens is outrageous.
Second, the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee "noted that pockets of stress have emerged for some in the household, commercial property & agricultural sectors" from debt servicing costs. The RBNZ doesn't have a clue about stress levels in Kiwi households so why write such rubbish? Do its staff work in a gilded palace in Wellington, detached from life in the real world? "Pockets of stress for some", eh? The majority of NZ can't afford to pay its bills & mortgages yet the RBNZ thinks its just a problem for "some" - the odd "pocket"? What a callous institution. Did its out-of-touch Monetary Policy Committee saunter off & buy $8 flat-white coffees on Lambton Quay after their meeting?
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