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Migration may not drive prices as much as expected: RBNZ

Thursday 12th of June 2014

In its latest Monetary Policy Statement, released today when it hiked the official cash rate by another 25 basis points, the Reserve Bank said it was expecting an increase in net immigration over the coming years.

Net immigration increased to an annual inflow of about 34,000 people in April, up sharply from about 5000 the year before. The Bank included a scenario of a rise to net migration of 45,200 by the middle of next year, which it said could add four percentage points to house price inflation and boost short-term interest rates.

But it said the biggest contributor to the increase in net immigration over the past year was a change in the migration flows of New Zealand citizens, not a large lift in foreign citizens moving to this country. “The level of departures of New Zealand citizens has fallen by about 17,000 over the past year and is currently at low levels compared with history.”

At the same time, there had been a more modest increase in the number of New Zealanders returning from overseas, it said.

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