新西兰英语 69 Inflation

　　New Zealand inflation¹ is up by 5% for the year ending September 30th. This is the highest increase for 18 years, but Australia is reporting the same increase. The Governor of the New Zealand Reserve Bank has to keep inflation between 1% and 3% so this increase could be a worry. However, many economists² are expecting that the Reserve Bank Governor will drop interest rates to banks tomorrow by 1% from 7.5% to 6.5% and this could bring lower mortgage³ prices for home owners.
Inflation is measured by Statistics⁴ New Zealand which takes a basket of goods and services that private New Zealand households buy and checks the cost of these same goods and services quarterly⁵, that is four times a year. This is called the CPI or Consumers Price Index. In the last quarter, these things went up in price: food, petrol, air travel, building costs for new homes, electricity, rates that we pay to our local councils, rents, and alcohol. A few things like clothing have gone down.
Higher prices make it difficult for families where wages have not increased. Some government benefits will increase by 5% but not until 1st April next year. Shop owners are worried that people will spend less this Christmas. Charities which operate food banks say that more people are coming to them to ask for food parcels because they cannot feed their families.
However, better times might be just around the corner. Petrol is starting to come down, house prices are down and Fonterra announced that dairy prices will come down as world prices for milk powder have dropped. If mortgage rates also come down, rents might also fall and families who own houses will have to pay less each week.
On the other hand, the global financial crisis⁶ could affect us badly too. Overseas, businesses in the US, UK, Europe and Asia have closed making thousands of people unemployed⁷. The same may happen here. Tourism is important to our economy but numbers of tourists are likely to drop next year. Some economists say that it takes six months before we really feel the effects of a financial crisis.

1 inflation   

n.胀大，夸张，通货膨胀

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• The inflation of the airbed took several minutes.给空气床垫充气花了几分钟时间。

2 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 mortgage   

n.抵押，抵押贷款；vt.抵押

参考例句：

• He's having a lot of trouble paying his mortgage every month.他付每月的抵押借款利息有很大的困难。
• The bank refused to accept any mortgage on land.银行拒绝接受任何土地抵押。

4 statistics   

n.统计，统计数字，统计学

参考例句：

• We have statistics for the last year.我们有去年的统计资料。
• Statistics is taught in many colleges.许多大学都教授统计学。

5 quarterly   

adj.季度的；adv.季度地

参考例句：

• The quarterly magazine is a periodical published every three months.季刊是每3个月出版一次的期刊。
• The payments were made quarterly.按季度付酬。

6 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

7 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。