Optimism we can get on top of inflation without a big rise in unemployment

The latest NZIER survey has business confidence at its weakest since March 2020 -- with 62 percent of businesses expecting economic conditions to deteriorate.

ASB Bank is warning of the possibility of stagflation -- where there's high inflation and recession.

ANZ Chief Economist Sharon Zollner says the Reserve Bank is going to keep hiking until it sees people spending less money and inflation pressures coming down.

She says it's a question of how much damage is required to be done to the housing and labour markets to achieve that -- not whether demand is going to slow.