OPINION: There is a recovery under way in the New Zealand economy, but we, like others, feel the best way to describe it is "patchy", writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Last week the New Zealand dollar hit a 10-year low against the aussie dollar near 76 cents and a 30-year high against the British pound near 47 pence, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: A recent survey of businesses shows that despite the bad news coming in from overseas about the likes of Greece, the United States housing market, the state of British government finances and efforts to slow Chinese growth, New Zealand businesses are confident, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Most overseas economies are now officially out of recession, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Every year as Christmas spending gets under way in earnest there is a company involved in processing electronic transactions which reports how much spending has increased compared with the previous periods, writes Tony Alexander this week.

The big story of last year was a huge sigh of relief sweeping across the planet as data in March showed a Depression scenario would be avoided – significantly, as a result of huge easings of fiscal and monetary policies, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: There is an upturn under way in the New Zealand economy but it would be wrong to describe it as strong, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Tomorrow morning the Reserve Bank will conduct its first review of monetary policy for 2010 and it is extremely unlikely that it will make any change to the record low 2.5 per cent official cash rate, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Welcome to a whole new year of informed guessing about what lies ahead for the economy, interest rates, the housing market, the exchange rate (definitely guessing with that one) and so on, in the field of economics, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: This is my last column for the year – and what a year it has been. For the first two months the world economy faced a serious risk of a new Great Depression, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION:  This week the Reserve Bank reviews its official cash rate and there is a strong chance that the bank will continue to emphasise its determination to keep the cash rate low until the middle of next year, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Many factors cause the New Zealand dollar to go up a long way against other currencies such as the Japanese yen and United States dollar, and then go back down the other way, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: The leader of the Opposition has stated that if elected prime minister he intends forcing the Reserve Bank to focus less on inflation, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: To say that a lot of uncertainty remains about the global economic environment over the next few years would be an understatement, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Some people still believe that the only way the New Zealand economy can truly grow strongly in the next few years is if we develop some entirely new industries, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Exporters are likely to be feeling a bit happier at the moment, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: When it comes to the interest rates cycle, there are many interesting points and pitfalls that always catch a lot of people out, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: You may have noticed that over the past week a new round of increases in fixed home lending rates has kicked off – right after the completion of the previous round, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Our expectation and the expectation of most other forecasters is that the New Zealand economy is likely to grow in rather unspectacular fashion over the next couple of years by between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent per annum, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: The New Zealand dollar has got itself reasonably solidly consolidated above the US70 cent mark over the past few weeks, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: During the past couple of weeks banks have raised their fixed lending mortgage interest rates, while at the same time cutting floating interest rates, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Tony Alexander offers up some conversation-boosting numbers.

OPINION: Tony Alexander points out the timely reminder that the economy is still not bounding ahead.

OPINION: Each month we survey the 20,000 people who receive our Weekly Overview asking them how they see the economy in the coming year and what is happening in their industry at the moment, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Back in the early part of this year, things were looking very bad for the world economy and less bad though still recessionary for our economy, writes Tony Alexander this week.

OPINION: Each month we survey the 20,000 people receiving the BNZ Weekly Overview and ask whether they think the economy will get better or worse, writes Tony Alexander this week.