But as the shock inflation figure of 3.3 per cent released on Friday made clear, the comparative success of New Zealand’s Covid response – measured in lack of deaths, a relatively free and open economy and a strong recovery growth rate – has come at a cost. CHRIS MARSHALL/Stuff House prices are reaching record highs in nearly every region The Covid response of every nation around the world has come at a cost: be it in lives, loss of individual liberties, reduced economic output. In New Zealand, the costs have been more prosaic: a massive spike in property prices (the median house price has shot up nearly 29 per cent to $820,000 in the past year) an overheated housing and residential construction market and a closed border fuelling skills shortages and leaving the economy without the fillip the comparatively high level of pre-Covid migration used to deliver.