This is CBSi and the world. I'm John Bachelor. New Zealand,

Hamilton, New Zealand, the home of Waikato University and Senior Lecture of Geopolitics Ruben Steph to report on the good

news from New Zealand far away and smiling because the economy Bloomberg is

reporting is quite holding up given the concerns in Europe,

especially Germany, the concerns in the United Kingdom about a possible recession that might be on. It looks to be that New Zealand is

having a better time of it matching the US. Ruben a very good day to you. Thank

you. Your unemployment report just published was not as gloomy as expected.

Our jobs plentiful, our wages climbing, how is your productivity good evening to you

good evening to you as you noted unemployment is remaining about 4% the

expectations is that would be rising but it had stayed a fairly good number. Now of course that

comes at the cost somewhat of we expected interest rates to be be cut this year

and that that figure of 4% means that may not happen. Wages have been rising. Now of course

they haven't risen enough to counteract the inflation we've seen in recent years but

nonetheless they have been rising.

When it comes to productivity that's a bigger story John.

New Zealand actually has a productivity issue.

In the OECD we are a fairly low productivity country and that has been a long-term trend here and there's a number of theories as to why

that we're not worth going to right now

but no productivity is is often a consideration for New Zealand a problem. We work long hours

for relatively less compared to many other wealthy countries.

Food prices are the bane of the American electorate right now.

Our economy is positive by many metrics, but food prices hold the public back from being relaxed.

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