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Tony Alexander
Tony graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Master of Arts degree with first class honours in 1984. He travelled to Sydney for a brief stint with the Reserve Bank of Australia before joining Westpac in 1985 and returning to New Zealand in 1987 rising to the position of Westpac Treasury Economist located in the dealing room. After a year with a sharebroking firm, Garlick and Co, in 1993 Tony joined the BNZ.
Tony has spent the past 13 years as the bank’s Chief Economist and spends considerable time advising the bank on developments in the New Zealand economy and travelling the country making numerous presentations. He writes in a number of magazine and newspaper columns as well as producing his own publications on the New Zealand and offshore economies distributed weekly to over 14,000 people.
Tony is the most quoted economist in New Zealand with his first claim to fame being a year and a half chatting about exchange rates on the radio with Paul Holmes at 6.40am each morning between 1991 and 1992.
When not busy studying, writing and talking about the economy Tony’s time is taken up with his five young children on a lifestyle block north of Wellington, occasional tramping, landscaping and reading.
Tony delivers what can be complicated economic material in an easy to understand manner using what can best be described as “layman’s” terms. The emphasis is on simple positives and negatives in the NZ and offshore economies and the implications for key areas such as interest rates, exchange rates, the housing market, labour market, and business operational and strategic planning considerations.
Tony’s mission is to help Kiwi businesspeople and householders make informed financial decisions by discussing the economy in a language they can understand.