CoveragePost
November 7, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Are wars affordable? The answer of course is ‘yes and no’. Affording a war is different from financing a war. To make any new thing affordable, either there must be a reallocation of resources or a deployment of resources not otherwise in use. Or a mix of both. Further, resources get ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Affording and Financing Wars, with reference to the United States" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/11/07/keith-rankin-analysis-affording-and-financing-wars-with-reference-to-the-united-states/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Affording and Financing Wars, with reference to the United States">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
October 30, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The chart above summarises Japan’s financial balance sheet since 1980. A wall of red below the line, and blue above. Additionally, a persistent ‘slice’ of green below the line, indicating that Japan – the country, not the government – is very much a creditor (ie saver) nation. This red wall has ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Red Gold: Japan’s Lesson for the World" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/10/30/keith-rankin-analysis-red-gold-japans-lesson-for-the-world/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Red Gold: Japan’s Lesson for the World">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
October 24, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Earlier this week, in The Truth about Prices in New Zealand, (on Evening Report, and on Scoop), I showed how the Consumers Price Index (CPI) is a lagging measure of inflation, and that the Producers Price Index (and the use of six-monthly rather than annual data) gives more timely information about turning points in ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – A Quarter-Century of New Zealand’s CPI Inflation" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/10/24/keith-rankin-analysis-a-quarter-century-of-new-zealands-cpi-inflation/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – A Quarter-Century of New Zealand’s CPI Inflation">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
October 21, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The first chart shows annual price increases in New Zealand for businesses (PPI: Producers Price Index) and consumers (CPI: Consumers Price Index), since 1999. We note that the latest CPI datapoint is for the third quarter of 2025, meaning that it’s centred on mid-August. The most recent PPI data is for the second ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – The Truth about Prices in New Zealand" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/10/21/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-the-truth-about-prices-in-new-zealand/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – The Truth about Prices in New Zealand">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
October 14, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. An increasing proportion of New Zealand’s immigrants are foreign citizens. In the 2010s – especially the later 2010s – a critical driver of immigration had been returning New Zealand citizens. As the headlines have indicated, that process of sourcing immigrants from the New Zealand diaspora has long finished. Where have New ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Post-Covid Immigration to New Zealand by Nationality" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/10/14/keith-rankin-analysis-post-covid-immigration-to-new-zealand-by-nationality/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Post-Covid Immigration to New Zealand by Nationality">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
October 13, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The following tables represent an update of mortality by sex in relation to Table 2 from Decennial Increases in Deaths by Birth Cohort, in Aotearoa New Zealand. By looking at deaths registered in February to May only, it is possible to extend trends into 2025, avoiding fluctuations arising from winter illnesses. ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Decennial Increases in Deaths by Birth Cohort, an Update" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/10/13/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-decennial-increases-in-deaths-by-birth-cohort-an-update/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Decennial Increases in Deaths by Birth Cohort, an Update">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 8, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. In the wake of the recent release of labour force data (Household Labour Force Survey, HLFS, Nicola Willis bemoans ‘glass half empty’ view of unemployment figures, RNZ 6 August 2025), 1918-1920 National Party Leader Simon Bridges, has called for economic “stimulus” to rescue in particular the dire Auckland economy. (See Call ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Stimulate or Suffocate, in the light of Older Women’s Spending?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/08/keith-rankin-analysis-stimulate-or-suffocate-in-the-light-of-older-womens-spending/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Stimulate or Suffocate, in the light of Older Women’s Spending?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 8, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The above chart shows – in red – the annual percentage increase (since 1988) in numbers employed of women aged 65-69, based on Household Labour Force Survey employment data. (And it shows, for comparison, males aged 30-34; in blue, their percentages are shown on the right-hand side of the chart. I ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Employment growth in New Zealand for retirement-age women" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/08/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-employment-growth-in-new-zealand-for-retirement-age-women/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Employment growth in New Zealand for retirement-age women">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 7, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Quarterly Labour market data in Aotearoa New Zealand was released today. Much of the data is functionally useless, because of definitions which disguise rather than reveal important trends and turning points. I have focussed on employment data (although the definition of ’employment’ is too generous to be optimally useful) relative to ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis: Employment in New Zealand – especially of women – at the Age Margins" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/07/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-employment-in-new-zealand-especially-of-women-at-the-age-margins/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis: Employment in New Zealand – especially of women – at the Age Margins">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 30, 2025
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk New Caledonia’s population has shrunk to 264,596 over the past six years, the latest census, conducted in April and May 2025, has revealed. This compares to the previous census, conducted in 2019, which recorded a population of 271,400 in the French Pacific territory. To explain the ... <a title="New Caledonia’s population drops to below 265,000, census reveals" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/07/30/new-caledonias-population-drops-to-below-265000-census-reveals/" aria-label="Read more about New Caledonia’s population drops to below 265,000, census reveals">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
October 18, 2024
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Recently I have published charts showing how people born around 1960 are already placing huge burdens on New Zealand’s healthcare system (Death Frequencies in Aotearoa New Zealand, by Birth Year, 26 Sep 2024) and how big falls in age-specific death rates have plateaued since 2010, and may now be reversing upwards ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Decennial Increases in Deaths by Birth Cohort, in Aotearoa New Zealand" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/10/18/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-decennial-increases-in-deaths-by-birth-cohort-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Decennial Increases in Deaths by Birth Cohort, in Aotearoa New Zealand">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 26, 2024
Analysis by Keith Rankin. This chart essentially shows the stresses that New Zealand’s public health system can expect to face. I have analysed the death data by age, covering all deaths from July 1998 to June 2024. For those years (using June years) I have looked at every age of death from 16 to 99 ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Death Frequencies in Aotearoa New Zealand, by Birth Year" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/09/26/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-death-frequencies-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-by-birth-year/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Death Frequencies in Aotearoa New Zealand, by Birth Year">Read more</a>
