Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

A 1pm presser and Covid‑style alert levels. This fuel price spike is bringing back bad memories from those dark days of lockdown. But a few facts help put things in perspective. There are a lot of scenarios and best guesses floating around, but the reality is we’re not yet short on fuel. That’s at least weeks away, we’re told. The economy is in recovery, and even the worst‑case scenarios still have us growing at a little under 3% — about half a percent off pre‑war predictions. The other big difference is the response. Interest rates, even if inflation hits the high 3s, aren’t expected to shoot up dramatically or immediately, because demand falls as people put less petrol in the Honda. If you live rurally, or don’t have a Grey Lynn tractor — a.k.a. a Tesla — the price of fuel will sting. But it won’t cause the sort of catastrophic, long‑term damage that lockdowns and Covid supply disruptions did.Nicola Willis, who fronted yesterday’s 1pm media event, made it pretty clear that excise cuts and other expensive re