Govt out to ease impact of migrants
5:00AM Tuesday June 19, 2007
By Derek Cheng
The Government is taking a cautious approach to immigration, pushing down the numbers of incoming migrants while seeking further advice on the impact of immigration on inflation. It is understood a paper is being prepared for the Cabinet which will address, among other things, the effect of immigration on the housing market.
As the Reserve Bank and New Zealand First highlight the effect of immigration on inflation and the housing market, the Government has decided to drop the target of incoming migrants this year to 47,000, the bottom end of the 47,000 to 52,000 forecast.
Despite this, Immigration Minister David Cunliffe is standing by his comments in May, when he said the impact of immigration on the housing market was "likely to be relatively small".
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