新西兰英语 667 Official Cash Rate stays the same

 　　The Reserve Bank governor¹, Alan Bollard, said today that the OCR – the Official Cash Rate – will stay the same at 2.5%.

　　He also talked about the state of the New Zealand economy. He said it was in a “boring state” which was a good thing, especially at a time when so many other countries were in financial trouble. Our trading partners in Europe are weak and China’s economic growth is slowing down. Economic activity will grow moderately in the next few years, especially with the construction in Christchurch. Our main problem is the high Kiwi dollar which makes it hard for exporters and encourages more spending on imports. The New Zealand government has a high debt and New Zealanders do not save enough.

　　Dr Bollard, who has been in this job for the last 10 years, will leave in two weeks. He will move to a position in the APEC Secretariat in Singapore. His replacement² is Graeme Wheeler, a New Zealander who was a senior executive³ at the World Bank.

　　Listen to June 14th 2012 to hear more about the Official Cash Rate.

　　Vocabulary

　　trading partners – countries we buy from and sell to

　　economic (adj) from economy (noun); do not confuse this with economical⁴ (adj) which means it doesn’t waste money e.g. it’s more economical to take your own lunch to work than to buy it

　　moderately – not a little and not a lot

　　construction – building

　　encourages – makes people want to do this

　　debt – note pronunciation; the letter b is silent

　　replacement – the person who will take his place

1 governor   

n.统治者，地方长官(如省长，州长，总督等)

参考例句：

• The governor was an expert at fencing with reporters.这位州长是搪塞新闻记者的能手。
• He was elected governor of the state of California.他当选为加州州长。

2 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

3 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

4 economical   

adj.节约的，节俭的；经济学的；经济上的

参考例句：

• The state has paced the whole nation in the economical reform.这个州在经济改革中走在了全国的前列。
• Coke is an economical fuel but it leaves a lot of ash.焦炭是一种很经济的燃料,可是燃烧后剩下很多灰。