Conventional wisdom a year ago, was for rising rates. Now expectations appear to have flipped, with a key driver of markets in 2019 being a move lower in interest rates. This has seen buying demand for risk assets, particularly “bond proxy” equities, as investors hunt for income in a low interest rate environment. This has contributed to the strong performance of sectors such as utilities, telco’s, and property trusts year to date which provide a relatively stable, defensive, high yield exposure.

The US Federal Reserve is becoming dovish, and the RBA is hinting at rate cuts.  However, the big news for Kiwis this week was that the Reserve Bank of NZ has cut the official cash rate to a record low of 1.50%.

So what does this mean for NZ investors? >