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Speaker 1: Right. Speaking of the economy and numbers, new numbers this

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Speaker 1: morning around how we're handling the cost of living crisis.

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Speaker 1: Kiwibanks andual State of Savings Index has found that one

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Speaker 1: in three of us would struggle with paying an unexpected

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Speaker 1: five hundred dollars bill. Thirty nine percent of US are

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Speaker 1: saving less than one hundred dollars a month. The KI

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Speaker 1: Bank chief executive Steve Yukovic's back. Well, this Steve, very

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Speaker 1: good morning to you. When you look at the picture

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Speaker 1: versus I don't know the COVID era of the GFC

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Speaker 1: any regular time. What's this picture tell us bad?

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Speaker 2: Good?

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Speaker 1: Or indifferent? Ah?

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Speaker 2: Bad lot. People are doing it very tough and particularly

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Speaker 2: we've seen that more than sax times more likely the

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Speaker 2: reason that people would bring us up in the state

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Speaker 2: they've got problems is cost of living. Historically that would

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Speaker 2: have been the top three reasons would have been lost,

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Speaker 2: my job, got divorced, or have got an illness. So

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Speaker 2: it does really show that there's been a big shift

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Speaker 2: with the weare.

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Speaker 1: The strugglers that thirty nine percent saving less than one

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month. Does that reflect your customer profile?

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Speaker 1: Would it be different at different banks or we don't know.

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Speaker 2: No, this is a sample of all of New Zealanders,

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Speaker 2: though it's absolutely respective of everyone.

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Speaker 1: That's depressing, isn't.

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Speaker 2: It It is? It shows just how hard it is

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Speaker 2: for people. I mean the encouraging thing is, you know,

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Speaker 2: sixty percent of us have a monthly budget, but obviously

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Speaker 2: budgets so driven by you know, what you've got as

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Speaker 2: a surplus, so you know. I mean, I think the

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Speaker 2: short story is being able to put anything away as

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Speaker 2: soon as you can is absolutely the best idea. The

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Speaker 2: thing that really struck me might was, you know, a

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Speaker 2: one off cost and not being able to meet that

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Speaker 2: without borrowing or selling something. You know that could be

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Speaker 2: failing a warrant or you know, needing new ties for

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Speaker 2: your car, which might impact you being able to get

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Speaker 2: to work. So it does show that people are getting

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Speaker 2: close to the line and.

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Speaker 1: These are working New Zealand does, aren't they? In general?

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Speaker 1: I mean most that these are people who get an income,

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Speaker 1: go to work and you would think can tread at

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Speaker 1: least tread water.

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Speaker 2: Yep, very much so, and you know, indicative of a

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Speaker 2: whole lot of people. I mean the other depressing part

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Speaker 2: of it and confronting factors that women do. You know, like, hey,

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Speaker 2: we say to do much worse in the situation as well,

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Speaker 2: So you know there's some things to steer into there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So is it the big bills that like

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Speaker 1: the mortgage that's killing most people? In other words, we

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Speaker 1: would save more than one hundred dollars if the mortgage

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Speaker 1: hadn't gone up.

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Speaker 2: Yep, I think so. Also the things that you I mean,

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Speaker 2: I've heard you talk about this previously, you know, insurance premiums,

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Speaker 2: those sorts of things. Rates, they're not choices that you

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Speaker 2: can make to sort of cut back on without big consequences.

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Speaker 2: And so people are really trying to face into meeting

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Speaker 2: the bills they can while recognizing they're going to have

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Speaker 2: to spend lease on entertainment or hospitality, on retail. We've

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Speaker 2: really seen a cut back there.

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Speaker 1: See. Here's the really interesting thing for me. So we're

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Speaker 1: talking about Adrian or we're talking about cuts, maybe not

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Speaker 1: until next year. Am z's just there forecast until maybe February.

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Speaker 1: But even then, if it comes, it's the cuts. If

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Speaker 1: you're only saving one hundred dollars or less a month,

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Speaker 1: we're a long way away from getting back to anywhere

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Speaker 1: near what many people would regard as normalcy.

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Speaker 2: Aren't we here? We are? And I think that's what

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Speaker 2: you have to think about. You know, we certainly we've

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Speaker 2: done some research in you know, there's lots of articles around.

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Speaker 2: We're seeing a lot more people fixing their mortgages for

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Speaker 2: shorter terms, and the hope that the rates are going

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Speaker 2: to come down really important people work through, you know,

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Speaker 2: how long the cuts would need to happen for before

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Speaker 2: you actually net better off. But look, I think a

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Speaker 2: cut and interest rates will be really good for people's confidence.

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Speaker 2: I think people were really shocked by, you know, that

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Speaker 2: sort of out of the box rate call that it

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Speaker 2: might go up. Those sorts of things really put a

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Speaker 2: lot of pressure on people. So I think while it

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Speaker 2: won't be a huge savings I think a cut hopefully

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Speaker 2: later this year, will be it is that.

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Speaker 1: What your banker is saying, still later this year as

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Speaker 1: opposed to next year?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, We're still calling it later in the year,

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Speaker 2: but I mean everyone's shifted to early twenty five mainly,

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Speaker 2: So look at you know, if it's late in the year,

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Speaker 2: it's probably going to be November and probably going to

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Speaker 2: be twenty five points, all.

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Speaker 1: Right, mate, go well, appreciate it. Steve Yukovic, who is

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Speaker 1: the key Wei Bank chief executive, with us this morning.

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Speaker 1: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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