Debt – the root cause of financial distress

Debt – the root cause of financial distress
Balancing the books is only going to get harder. (Image: Getty)
Brian Gaynor
The global economy, including New Zealand, faces tough times ahead.Inflation is rising throughout the world and central banks are responding by lifting interest rates and moving from quantitative easing (money printing) to quantitative tightening (central banks extracting liquidity).The average annual inflation rate of OECD countries was 2.1% in 2020, 5.9% last year and 7.4% for the 12 months ended March 2022.NZ has a March 2022 year inflation rate of 6.9%, Australia 5.1% and the United States 8.5%. The recently released International Mone...

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