Yesterday the Reserve Bank of New Zealand decided to hold their interest rate, the OCR (Official Cash rate) at 5.5%, where it has been since the last rate rise in May, 2023. With inflation still ticking along at 4.7% per annum, well above the 1-3% target range, there never was much chance of a rates drop and we may not see one until mid-2025.

Which means things are going to remain tough for businesses with debt (which is pretty much all business) and homeowners with mortgages (which is most homeowners).

Also remember that the inflation we have suffered for the last two years as a result of the giant Labour spend-up for General Xi’s Sickness – aided and abetted by Adrian Orr – is now literally priced in to everything, so even if inflation fell to zero tomorrow you still wouldn’t see actual price drops, let alone ones large enough to make up that roughly 20% increase. We’re going to have wait for our rising incomes to close that gap (if they can).

And that’s just a generic estimate because inflation has hit hardest on the very things most important to people; food rather than computers:

The price of common food items saw a dramatic increase of more than 50 percent in New Zealand over the past year, similar to spikes seen in some of the world’s poorest countries.

A report released on Thursday by World Vision shows the cost of 10 common foods – including rice, bananas, chicken, tomatoes, eggs and oil – had increased by 56 percent locally, despite food prices trending down globally. The average price came in at $78.32, compared to $50.16 during the previous year.

A 29 percent drop was seen in Australia, while a 61 percent spike was seen in the likes of Sudan. Ethiopia saw a 43 percent jump while Honduras – like New Zealand – also spiked by 56 percent.

Great. Australia sees rising incomes and falling prices, so after we’ve finished shipping our best and brightest over the Ditch we can rename ourselves New Zimbabwe and really join the crew we belong with.

And WRT to those food prices, here’s a graph from a post I made last year, Subtle Lies and Brutal Truths, which compares the CPI of the past to that used today:

And remember:A Labour and the Left really care about the poor.

Anyway, stop crying and start laughing about being screwed at both ends by inflation and interest rates, and start laughing about the situation.