Monetary Policy Challenge

The annual monetary policy competition attracted entries from 53 top performing secondary schools from across New Zealand, with six schools selected for the national final after tough competition. The team will receive prizes worth $100 each and will represent Macleans College in early July in Wellington with expenses paid by the Reserve Bank.

The team consisted of Bryner Lum (Mansfield House), Ansel Wong (Batten), Sue Liu (Mansfield), Yang Fan Yun (Snell), and Winnie Zhang - Governor (Hillary). To qualify for the national final, the team was required to analyse a range of domestic and international economic conditions to make their final decision of maintaining the Official Cash Rate (OCR) of New Zealand unchanged at 1.75%. The OCR is the interest rate set by the Reserve Bank to meet the inflation target specified in the Policy Targets Agreement (PTA). A 20 minute presentation was then made to Reserve Bank representatives, including a question and answer session which included questions about the effect of global uncertainty on the New Zealand interest rate, mortgage rates, the housing market, and the importance of keeping inflation in the target band.

The Reserve Bank was very impressed with the Macleans College team’s presentation, which “demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of complex factors that impact monetary policy decisions”. Thank you to Mrs Shakti Ladkoo for her guidance in this achievement.