🕑1-minute read



I love the first chart! It shows everything that happened so far in the NZ economy. The green line is the number of COVID-19 cases, which is going down.



NZ has been ahead of the pack. It took our Government just 1 day after the 100th Covid-19 case to put together the $6.25bn BFGS. In the UK, it took 5 days, 12 days in Australia and 22 days in the US.



Do you think we are going to get "helicopter money"? Back of the envelope calculations show reasonable injections could cost as little as $2bn (if only for low-income households) or as much as $6bn, a fraction of the $20-40bn proposed by the Treasury.



Cash handouts will get great press coverage and lift confidence out of lockdown. Who wouldn’t enjoy spraying a bit of cash around after such an ordeal?



Charts of the week: Oil: the blackstuff is in the red!



For NZ being a net importer of oil, lower crude prices are a supporting factor for the economy. Lower petrol prices will help get NZ moving again once we move past Covid-19.