NZ to be the world's first, largest green hydrogen producer?

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Tuesday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>Today we lead with news New Zealand's ambitions to be a green hydrogen superpower are making real progress.</p><p>But first up we should note that today is a national holiday in the US, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth" target="_blank"><strong>Juneteenth</strong></a>", commemorating the end of slavery, an end that started in Texas in 1865. (Until last year, it had only been a regional holiday.)</p><p>Meanwhile, Chinese authorities reviewed their Prime Loan rates yesterday, and left them unchanged. In late May, their Premier released a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-unveils-detailed-stimulus-policies-support-virus-hit-economy-2022-05-31/" target="_blank"><strong>33-point rescue package</strong></a> to avoid an economic contraction in Q2-2022. But rate hikes by global central banks make it difficult for them to ease monetary policy to boost a weak domestic economy. However, analysts expect rate cuts in the second half of 2022 anyway.</p><p>The impact of that package of stimulus measures hasn't kicked in yet. One consequence may be that with car sales struggling there, the lithium price is wavering. A sudden new rush in supply seems to have overwhelmed demand and a price correction is expected soon.</p><p>And the Chinese <a href="http://www.dce.com.cn/DCE/Products/Industrial/Iron%20Ore/index.html" target="_blank"><strong>price of iron ore</strong></a> is still sinking. And that isn't helping the share price of Aussie miners.</p><p>This weakness is also showing up in Chinese consumer sentiment. The latest <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/" target="_blank"><strong>data</strong></a> released officially is for April and that showed their survey reporting a very sharp drop in confidence from a positive +13 in March to -13 in April. In a record that goes bac