By Rebecca Howard June 14 (BusinessDesk) -  Manufacturing activity grew at its slowest pace in more than six years last month, and barely remained in expansionary territory. The Bank of New Zealand-Business NZ performance of manufacturing index fell 2.5 points to a seasonal...

By Jenny Ruth June 13 (BusinessDesk) - China has been New Zealand’s largest market for red meat for some time and growth in that market is surging. Meat Industry Association analysis of Stats NZ figures shows China accounted for 36 percent of total red meat exports in April...

By Rebecca Howard June 13 (BusinessDesk) - The government expects primary industry export revenue will rise 7.1 percent to $45.7 billion in the June year, but predicts growth will be flatter in the future.  The lift marks the "second straight year of substantial export grow...

By Paul McBeth June 12 (BusinessDesk) - The government wants greater engagement from the New Zealand Defence Force with local suppliers and researchers in its $20 billion blueprint to shape the nation's military for the next 30 years.  Defence Minister Ron Mark yesterday un...

By Rebecca Howard June 12 (BusinessDesk) - Consumers pulled back on credit and debit car spending in May after holidays in April fuelled a rise.  Seasonally-adjusted electronic card spending fell 0.5 percent in May after rising 0.6 percent in April. Core retail spending, ex...

By Paul McBeth June 12 (BusinessDesk) - The close proximity of the Easter and Anzac Day holidays boosted the number of Australian visitors in April, underpinning an 8.3 percent increase in international arrivals that month.  About 307,000 visitors arrived in New Zealand in...

By Rebecca Howard June 11 (BusinessDesk) - The biggest increase in the volume of meat and dairy products for five years helped drive increased manufacturing sales in the March quarter.  The volume of manufacturing sales rose a seasonally adjusted 2 percent in the three mont...

By Paul McBeth June 11 (BusinessDesk) - Economic consultancy Infometrics doesn't see the provincial growth fund as the best vehicle to dealing with New Zealand's persistent rural-urban divide.  Urban centres rated significantly higher than rural areas in seven of nine well-...

By Rebecca Howard June 10 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand's wholesale trade lifted in the March quarter after falling in December and may add to the view that first-quarter economic growth held up better than expected.  Seasonally adjusted sales rose 0.7 percent in the three m...

By Rebecca Howard June 6 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand's commodity prices were unchanged in the month of May and were slightly higher on the year, the ANZ Bank's monthly commodity price index shows. The ANZ world commodity price index was unchanged in May having gained 2.6 p...

By Paul McBeth June 6 (BusinessDesk) - The Treasury and Inland Revenue Department are looking into why the government's April financial statements showed the 10-month tax-take running $2.25 billion ahead of the budget forecasts, just one week after they were publicly released....

By Jenny Ruth June 5 (BusinessDesk) - The Reserve Bank's bank capital proposals focus on the wrong things, are based on cherry-picking international research and won’t necessarily calm investors and depositors when banks come under stress, according to Martien Lubberink, assoc...

By Rebecca Howard June 4 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand's terms of trade rebounded in the first quarter on record export volumes of dairy products and cheaper imported fuel.  The terms of trade, which measures the purchasing power of New Zealand's exports relative to imports,...

By Gavin Evans June 4 (BusinessDesk) - Setting stringent climate change targets without understanding their cost or feasibility risks placing an unfair burden on some sectors, climate change professor David Frame says. Moving New Zealand to a net-zero carbon economy will ha...

By Rebecca Howard May 31 (BusinessDesk) - Economists were largely upbeat about the government's 2019 budget but say Treasury's forecasts may be too optimistic.  The Treasury lowered its growth forecasts but still sees gross domestic product growth of 3 percent in the 12 mon...

By Rebecca Howard May 31 (BusinessDesk) - Consumer confidence eased in May to a six-month low but continues to hover around the historical average.  The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan survey of consumer confidence fell 4 points in May to 119.3, but remained above the neutral 100-poi...

By Jenny Ruth May 30 (BusinessDesk) - The New Zealand dollar rose a little after the Labour-led government’s “wellbeing” budget forecast fiscal surpluses will be smaller as spending ramps up. The kiwi was trading at 65.24 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 65.11 at 7:50am....

By Pattrick SmellieMay 30 (BusinessDesk) - Government funding for water and roading infrastructure “to support the timely increase of housing supply” is halved without explanation in the Budget.Having announced a $600 million capital allocation for CIP in last year’s Budget, this...

By Pattrick Smellie May 30 (BusinessDesk) - The national rail carrier, KiwiRail, and Auckland’s Central Rail Loop projects receive capital boosts totalling $1.58 billion in this year’s Budget and there will be more to come. Of that, $405.5 million is to meet rocketing costs...

By Pattrick Smellie May 30 (BusinessDesk) - Announcements in the Budget indicate that two-thirds of the $3 billion available for distribution from the Provincial Growth Fund has now been committed. With $1.7 billion of projects already announced, the Budget adds $300 millio...

By Paul McBeth May 30 (BusinessDesk) - The government will spend $2 million a year to support the roll-out of a cyber security strategy among a raft of new spending in the virtual space. That’s in the shadow of a budget leak by the opposition National Party, which took adva...

By Pattrick Smellie May 30 (BusinessDesk) - The embryonic nature of the government’s approach to policy-making focused on ‘well-being’ is writ large by the fact that the 2019 Budget contains just two new metrics for measuring success. However, the direction of future activi...