New Zealand "suffers from over-exuberant house prices," Adrian Orr, RBNZ governor, told a finance conference on Friday. "We also have persistent and stubborn unemployment and low-income challenges. This is especially so amongst Pasifika and M?ori, despite their significant contribution to our economic and cultural wellbeing, and despite the current labour shortages. "And, we have a rapidly ageing, and too often lonely, population."Underlying these challenges, Orr said, "is New Zealand's persistently low productivity growth - or economic output-per-person. The reasoning behind the low productivity is well understood but, apparently, difficult to combat in a coordinated, persistent, manner."One hassle, the dividend addiction of Australian banks."Many of our larger companies are driven to pay dividends (often offshore due to their ownership) rather than re-invest in their own company, or New Zealand more broadly."