October has been a busy month across the board, with the 2023 General Election been and gone, new inflation and population data to digest, and the release of the latest Infometrics forecasts!
To kick off the October newsletter, Senior Economist Nick Brunsdon has examined the latest subnational (local level) population data, finding that the rapid change in net migration has boosted the population of some areas much greater than others.
Next, Chief Product Innovation Andrew Whiteford got creative with our data once again to produce the 2022 Infometrics Creativity Index. Although Wellington remains on top, there was another battle for second place in the 2022 Index.
The latest Infometrics quarterly forecasts were released only a couple of weeks ago, and as Chief Forecaster Gareth Kiernan notes in his media release profiling the forecasts, the New Zealand economy looks to be on track for a soft landing, with less of a slowdown than originally feared.
Lastly, Economist Sabrina Swerdloff uses our October Chart of the Month to look at the rising cost of fuel, and how underlying diesel prices are rising more than petrol at the moment.