'Orr and Robertson: the $8b men'

Fri, 13 May 2022

The Reserve Bank's large-scale asset programme, the technical mechanism it used to print money, cost the government $8.36 billion by April.That's the difference between the face value of the $58.91b of government bonds RBNZ bought through the covid crisis until it ended the programme in July 2021, and the current market value and the cost to the government of the indemnity it gave RBNZ when it started the programme.Some of the bonds have matured as well, bringing the total outstanding to $51.66b at the end of April.The government's...

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