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Optimism NZ is 'well placed' to weather economic impacts of Iran war

Author
Newstalk ZB ,
Publish Date
Thu, 19 Mar 2026, 6:06am
Photo / File
Photo / File

Optimism NZ is 'well placed' to weather economic impacts of Iran war

Author
Newstalk ZB ,
Publish Date
Thu, 19 Mar 2026, 6:06am

Westpac's chief economist is still holding out hope New Zealand will weather financial headwinds from the Iran war. 

Stats NZ's releasing data for the December quarter just before 11am.

Westpac and ASB have forecast 0.4% quarterly growth, while BNZ and Kiwibank suggest 0.3% and ANZ 0.2%.

Kelly Eckhold told Ryan Bridge everyone's looking forward to the conflict's impacts, but he's optimistic. 

He says we have strong commodity prices and the exchange rate's helping us out, meaning we're better placed than we could have been. 

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