Businesses have lifted their expectations for inflation, sapping immediate pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates.

Prime Minister John Key all but conceded that pressure from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for action on house prices was a catalyst for recent announcements.

Watching the Reserve Bank grapple with the housing market has been like watching someone blowing up a long party balloon and trying to twist it into one of those sausage dogs.

The Auckland residential property boom has developed some of the characteristics of the Dublin bubble a decade ago, writes Brian Gaynor.

The Reserve Bank desperately needs the support of the Government to address the distortion its monetary policy is helping create, writes Peter Lyons.

The Reserve Bank has abandoned its one-size-fits-all approach to loan-to-value ratio curbs recognising house price inflation is an Auckland problem.

Editorial: The Government continues to insist unaffordable prices are entirely caused by a shortage of houses, but the bank has long recognised that demand has to be tackled too.

New lending rules targeting Auckland residential property investors will cool the market - but the city's "gravitational pull" will counter any impact, John Key says.

Auckland's housing market is almost certainly in bubble territory, write Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons. Here's their plan to avoid a crisis.

The Reserve Bank has opened the door to a cut in the official cash rate, but the conditionality attached suggests any decision to go through with it remains some way off.

NZIER's shadow monetary policy board thinks the Reserve Bank should leave the official cash rate unchanged at 3.5 per cent tomorrow but sees a cut as the next best option.

The Reserve Bank is expected to keep its official cash rate unchanged at 3.5 per cent on Thursday but in the accompanying statement to shift the guidance needle slightly to the easier side of neutral.

Land tax might be one of the answers to reducing tax incentives for rental property investors, writes Bernard Hickey.

A speech by the Reserve Bank's assistant governor and chief economist John McDermott gives support to market expectations that the next move in interest rates is likely to be down.

Rather than being "unadjusted and unsustainable", the exchange rate may reflect the fact that the NZ economy is not quite the basket-case the Nats' opponents would wish to paint it, writes John Armstrong.

Economics editor Brian Fallow asks if the Reserve Bank's inflation target should be changed.

One in five Auckland properties have sold under the hammer for more than $1 million and only two of 55 properties were sold for less than $500,000 last week.

Alan Bollard says country misses vital returns by just upping primary production.

Remember inflation? The Reserve Bank estimates the annual inflation rate right now is zero. Zip, zilch, nada, none.

Politicians have looked at Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler as if he was a potential arsonist in the Auckland housing market, writes Bernard Hickey.

Selling up to rent could leave you high and dry if prices firm and you want to get back into the market, writes Mary Holm.

If you judged by house price growth alone you would think Auckland is the best performing region in NZ economically. But not by a long chalk.

More properties were sold last month than during any February since the last property boom of 2007, latest figures from the REINZ show.

Despite it being only March, we've already seen 17 central banks around the world reduce interest rates this year.

Residential property investors look to be in the Reserve Bank's sights if it should opt later this year for another LVR-style intervention in the property market, writes Brian Fallow.