School takes home title
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has announced James Hargest College as the national winner of the 2022 Monetary Policy Challenge.
The competition gives Year 12 and 13 students across New Zealand the opportunity to address and engage with the finance policy decisions facing the country.
This year, 27 teams from all over the country participated in the challenge.
“We asked our nominees who were presenting their submissions to answer this question: ‘If you were members of the Monetary Policy Committee, what would you set the Official Cash Rate to at the Monetary Policy Review in October?’,” said RBNZ governor Adrian Orr (pictured above).
“Each submission was sent through via a video entry in September and submissions were judged by RBNZ chief economist Paul Conway, adviser Evelyn Truong and market analyst Brandon Kengmana.”
Read more: Reserve Bank makes its next rate call
James Hargest College is located in Invercargill. It is one of New Zealand’s largest high schools, with nearly 2,000 students.
The RBNZ made honourable mentions to Hutt Valley High School, Rangitoto College, Wellington Girls’ College and Westlake Boys High School which al presented high-quality submissions.
Orr said the judges who determined the winning school had a difficult task due to the quality of submissions being so high across the board.
“The judges were particularly impressed with the depth of economic knowledge shown by James Hargest College,” he said.
“The James Hargest College team have been invited to visit the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in Wellington to watch the November Financial Stability Report (FSR) media conference.”
Read more: Reserve Bank of New Zealand raises interest rates for the seventh time
The students will also have the opportunity to meet Governor Orr and other senior RBNZ staff to learn more about the work of RBNZ and see first-hand how economic theory is put into practice.
The RBNZ meets approximately every six weeks to deliver its monetary policy review. At its last meeting on October 6, the RBNZ announced the official cash rate would be lifted again by 50 basis points to 3.5%, the eighth consecutive cash rate hike in 12 months.
“Household spending is holding up, despite low consumer confidence and high inflation. Overall, household budgets have been bolstered by high levels of employment, savings built up during COVID-19 lockdowns and government support payments,” Orr said in his monetary policy speech.
“The committee members agreed that monetary conditions needed to continue to tighten until they were confident there was sufficient restraint on spending to bring inflation back within its 1% -3% per annum target range and the committee remains resolute in achieving the monetary policy remit.”
You can view the winning submission here: Monetary Policy Challenge 2022 Winner - James Hargest College
