Breakfast briefing: COL wage-push threatens inflation retreat

Here’s our summary of key economic events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news that as global price pressures ease, we may be starting to see a wage-price surge locally.

But first, the American housing market is continuing its measured rise with a surprise rise in February pending home sales. You may recall they rose more than +8% year-on-year in January, and analysts thought February would give back about -2.3% of that. But in fact they rose again, by +0.8%, and locking in the gains. It is the Northeast where the big gains are coming from; the West remains weak. It’s a recovery of transaction volume at this stage, not in prices, where the median remained at US$363,000 (NZ$583,000).

This gain in real estate volume may well have carried on into March. Mortgage applications rose +2.9% last week, a fourth consecutive week of increases, and the longest winning streak in four…