Interview: Alan Bollard on the NZ economy

New Zealand is richer than we think, says former Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard.

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6th October, 2012

Alan Bollard has taken a while to warm to his new oil portrait: “I look like a startled rabbit.” The painting, which marks his departure after 10 years at the helm of the Reserve Bank, will join a whole wood-panelled corridor-full of former governors. Bollard is pictured at his desk with the vivid blue harbour behind him, the Beehive at his elbow, the cranes of the capital’s port over his shoulder. It reminds him of those medieval portraits of wealthy merchants with the trappings of their power – a globe in one hand, a sack of grain in the other. “So the Beehive is my sack of grain,” ...

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