We hope you have been keeping warm through winter’s first big southerly blast this week.

This month’s newsletter begins with an article by Benje Patterson looking at why regional decision makers should not overly rely on GDP and how they can more effectively measure the well-being of individuals and the productive capacity of their area.

The newsletter also announces Infometrics commitment to supporting skills development as part of the Got a Trade? Got it Made? campaign.

We start a new series of interviews of Infometrics’ economists.  This month we ask Mieke Welvaert what economists really get up to at work and in their free time, before concluding with a short preview of what is likely to happen to interest rates following the Reserve Bank’s next review.