Posts Tagged ‘Wellington’
Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 30 (IANS) New Zealand’s service sector is struggling and will continue to struggle in the near future, an industry leader said Monday on the release of the latest Performance of Services Index (PSI).
The BNZ-Business New Zealand PSI figure for December was just 50.6, down from 56.2 in November and down 0.2 points from the October figure, reported Xinhua.
A PSI figure above 50 indicates expansion, and below 50 a decline.
The December figure was also below the 2011 PSI average of 52.6 and the 2010 average of 53.2, but it was above the 2009 figure of 48.8.
Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O’Reilly said both the PSI and the Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) have ended 2011 with “more of a whimper than a bang”.
“While the PSI has now remained in positive territory for 26 consecutive months, it has struggled to push any higher than moderate levels of expansion,” said O’Reilly in a statement from Business New Zealand.
“The results for December and October indicate that the sector may struggle for stronger expansion in the near future.”
BNZ bank senior economist Craig Ebert said the December PSI gave a sense of “ongoing progression”, underscored by its employment component remaining in expansion.
“This survey’s constructive view on staffing is encouraging, and corresponds with other surveys produced in the last couple of months, all signalling ongoing growth on the jobs front,” he said in the statement.
Only three of the five sub-indices showed expansion in December: new orders-business, which was 53.6, employment at 52.7, and stocks-inventories at 51.9.
Activity-sales was 49.7, in decline for the first time since July 2010, while supplier deliveries at 48.6 was in contraction for the first time since March 2011.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 30 (IANS) The head of New Zealand’s central bank, Alan Bollard, announced Monday that he is to retire later this year after a decade in the post.
The governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) said he would not be seeking another term when his current term ends Sep 25, reported Xinhua.
Bollard was first appointed in September 2002 and has served two five-year terms.
He said in a statement that he would be fully focused in his remaining eight months on “the serious economic and financial challenges facing New Zealand”.
“As I noted last week, the bank is ready to respond to ongoing developments overseas, especially in Europe, the US and China, as well as domestically, particularly the Canterbury earthquake,” he said.
“In addition, the bank’s expanded prudential regulatory responsibilities mean we will continue to introduce new prudential requirements this year, especially in the insurance and non-bank sectors.”
New Zealand Institute of Economic Research principal economist Shamubeel Eaqub told Radio New Zealand Monday the role of the governor had grown during Bollard’s time to include broad oversight of the financial sector.
He said Bollard had performed well during a difficult economic phase for the country.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 27 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 27 (IANS) Record high values for New Zealand dairy products and increased exports, particularly to Australia and China, maintained New Zealand’s trade surplus for a third straight quarter during October-December last year.
Figures from the government statistics agency Friday showed exports of milk powder, butter and cheese led a 4.3 percent increase in the value of exports in the fourth quarter, reported Xinhua.
“The seasonally adjusted trade balance for the December 2011 quarter was a surplus of NZ $698 million ($573.12 million), equivalent to 5.7 percent of exports,” Statistics New Zealand industry and labour statistics manager Neil Kelly said.
“Of the last eight quarters, only the March 2011 quarter recorded a seasonally adjusted trade deficit,” said Kelly in a statement.
For the month of December, export values rose by NZ $491 million, or 13 percent, compared with December 2010, led by milk powder, butter and cheese.
December 2011 was a record month for milk powder, butter and cheese exports, with quantities and values both reaching new highs, said the statement.
December saw a trade surplus of NZ $338 million or 7.8 percent of exports, which compared with an average deficit of 5.2 percent of exports for the previous five December months.
China took the second largest increase in exports, up by NZ $67 million, or 12 percent, led by milk powder, butter and cheese, which were up NZ $89 million, and preparations of cereals, flour, and starch, but falling values of logs, wood, and wood articles and wool partly offset the increase.
The value of imports from some countries dropped significantly last month with the biggest fall in imports from the US, which was down NZ $249 million, or 39 percent, mainly due to a drop of NZ $230 million in the value of aircraft imports.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 23 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 23 (IANS) A pod of about 90 pilot whales has grounded itself on a beach in New Zealand’s South Island in the latest of a series of whale strandings around the country this month, Xinhua reported Monday.
Conservation officials were hoping the whales could refloat themselves from the area in the Golden Bay during high tide.
However, it was too dangerous to try to help the animals refloat in the dark, manager of the conservation department of the Golden Bay area John Mason told the Fairfax NZ News.
They planned to keep the whales cool during the afternoon and to prevent them getting sunburned, he said.
If the whales remained on the beach overnight, they would try to refloat them at high tide Tuesday at around 11.15 a.m., he said.
The whales were in the same area where 25 cetaceans were stranded earlier this month, 18 of which were refloated.
Four Gray’s beaked whales, two lactating females and two juveniles died after being stranded on the Papamoa beach, on the east coast of the North Island over the weekend.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 19 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 19 (IANS) A sharp drop in the price of vegetables caused a dip in prices for New Zealand consumers in the last quarter, according to figures from the government statistics agency Thursday.
The consumers price index (CPI) fell 0.3 percent for the December quarter as the country emerged from a supply shortage caused by severe floods in the Australian state of Queensland last year, Statistics New Zealand said.
“The main reason for the fall was lower vegetable prices,” Statistics New Zealand prices manager Chris Pike said in a statement.
Vegetable prices fell 25 percent in the December quarter, causing a 2.2-percent fall in overall food prices, said Xinhua.
“The larger-than-usual fall for vegetables reflects a supply shortage in the three months to September,” Pike said.
“Basically, vegetable prices were higher than normal last winter, then fell to normal levels towards the end of the year. If vegetable prices had remained constant in the December 2011 quarter, the CPI would have risen 0.1 percent.”
Vegetable prices fell strongly from their winter peak in July, which was higher than usual due to a supply shortage following the Queensland floods earlier in 2011, said the CPI commentary.
Prices for telecommunication services, furniture, kitchenware and appliances were also down, but were partly countered by rises in international air fares and petrol.
Telecommunication services were the second biggest contributor to the fall in the CPI, dropping 3.6 percent with higher data caps and lower prices for broadband plans, and lower international calling rates from landline phones.
Prices for household contents and services were down 1.5 percent.
“This reflected lower prices for furniture, kitchenware and appliances. There was more discounting in the December 2011 quarter than in the previous three months or in the final quarter of 2010,” Pike said.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 07 January 2012
Wellington, Jan 7 (IANS) Eleven people were killed in New Zealand when the hot air balloon they were enjoying a ride in went up in flames early Saturday, Xinhua reported.
According to New Zealand police, the accident was reported at 7.25 a.m. at Clareville, a small town and a ballooning hub in the lower North Island.
As the balloon was preparing to land, it hit a power line, causing sparking in the basket, said an official Brent Register.
Family members of the balloon’s passengers watched in utter shock as the balloon plummeted on to the field, New Zealand media reported.
The New Zealand government offered its condolences to the families of those killed in New Zealand’s worst air disaster in more than three decades.
The crash was New Zealand’s worst air disaster since an Air New Zealand passenger jet crashed into Mount Erebus in the Antarctic with the loss of 257 lives in 1979.
Tags: New Zealand, Wellington
Posted in Australia | No Comments »
