Small open advanced economies like New Zealand tend to have economic cycles that are heavily influenced by developments in the global economy. We saw this when our growth rate slowed during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s and the collapse of the dot-com bubble in the United States three years later, and, most recently, during the global financial crisis (GFC). Over the past two years our economy has outperformed most of the advanced economies. Our growth rate has averaged 2.7 percent, or twice the average of the group of 35 advanced economies in the IMF classification. Most of our economic indicators are ... (full story)