Alan Bollard Speaks, but who is listening?

He was wrong about hiking interest rates and he took far too long to drop them again. Now he needs to start raising interest rates but still no sign of that. Last year Alan Bollard, Reserve Bank Governor, also said the recession was over.

How can we then take seriously Bollard's claim made today that:

"New Zealand is likely to begin recovering from the global financial crisis ahead of the pack".

NZ Herald 14/07/09

I am not sure what he is pointing as to evidence of this rather bold claim but his track record is littered with inaccuracies and bumbling wrong moves with a penchant to be somewhat Schizoid.

Is this supposed to inspire confidence for the average kiwi?

The stockmarket didn't believe a word of his pronouncement, rising only a handful of points when the large DOW movement up overnight indicated there should have been a good rise on the NZX today.

More astounding and confusing remarks today from the Gov given his decree last year that the recession was over:

"We appear to have avoided a repeat of the Great Depression. After the plummet in activity through to early 2009, production seems to be stabilising (Europe), to have stabilised (USA) or even turned around (some Asian economies)." NZ Herald - 14/7/09

But didn't he say late last year that the recession was over while we were at the height of the US banking collapse and hasn't the recession continued until the present day?

Well, yes he did and it has:

However, Bollard indicated at a press conference today that he thought the recession in this country was already over.

"If you want to be technical about it we believe the recession has ended and we have positive but very low growth for the next four quarters. It's only towards the second half of next year that one can be sure that we're getting solid growth," he said. "Those numbers in New Zealand can jump around and historically they tend to improve rather than getting worse.

Bollard said the recession was actually quite shallow and a lot shallower than in the past.
Stuff.co.nz - 4/12/08

What the...?!

So if you cant decide from day to day how things were, are, or are going to be Mr Bollard then how are we expected to decide? It kinda makes you wonder of the relevancy of a Reserve Bank Governor in the first place.

Why not let the market decide what interest rates it wants, it would at least be more accurate and reflect market conditions far more competently than a soothsayer.

Best leave the fortune telling for the Woman's Day.


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