Economic Update

Dominick Stephens

Economic Update

Dominick will discuss his latest thoughts on the New Zealand and global economies. Interest rates are plunging and Dominick’s view is that the consequence will be higher asset prices. But first we have to navigate low confidence locally and trade tensions globally.

Dominick joined Westpac as a Senior Economist in 2006, and became Chief Economist in 2011. His most well-known research concerns the roles of taxation, interest rates and inflation on the New Zealand housing market. He has also published research on the exchange rate, New Zealand’s labour market, and macroeconomic modelling.

Dominick started his career at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. He was closely involved in forecasting and interest rate decisions as second-in-charge of the RBNZ’s forecasting team. He is from Christchurch, and graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Bachelor of Science with 1 st Class Honours in Economics.

His travels include crossing Mongolia on horseback, riding 1000 miles down the Peruvian Andes, and a year spent in the Amazon jungle.