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July 4 – New Zealand commodity prices slipped for the first time since August last year, ending the run of golden weather for locally produced raw material, other than wool, which remains on a tear.

The ANZ Commodity Price Index slipped 1.2% to 308.5 last month from a record high in the measure’s first decline for 10 months.

Kiwifruit prices dropped 9% as the Northern Hemisphere’s fruit season kicks into life, while beef prices dropped 8% owing to an oversupply of imports by the U.S.

Still, “the index remains at an elevated level, namely the third highest reading since the series began,” economist Steve Edwards said in his report.

Record high prices for locally-produced raw materials have helped exporters exposed to the primary sector repay debt, and their future spending is expected to help kick the economy back into life.

The index fell 3.3% to 208 on a New Zealand dollar basis as the currency extended gains this year, touching a fresh post-float high above 83 U.S. cents las

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July 1 – A group of Korean investors, understood to include pension funds and other institutional investors, is backing a $160 million Christchurch golf course, academy and housing development that plays perfectly into the fact that thousands of the city’s residents will be looking for new homes.

Announcement of the major new investment in Christchurch comes seven days after the Christchurch City Council reversed the zoning on a 2600-section subdivision proposal known as “Prestons Road”.

Prior to the devastating series of earthquakes since last September, Environment Canterbury had been appealing against the CCC’s acceptance of the 160-hectare site, near Spencerville. The propo

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Case Against Strauss-Kahn Near Collapse: Investigators have turned up serious doubts about the credibility of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, undermining the case against him. The New York Times reports that “forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn,” the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and the woman, an immigrant from the African nation of Guinea; “But prosecutors now do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself.”

She seems to have given incorrect information about her application for asylum, saying it included the story of a previous rape, which was missing, and offering a different account of her experience with forced genital mutilation in Guinea. Read full post…

July 4 – The Treasury is more downbeat about economic growth figures this week, saying it expects gross domestic product grew 0.3% in the first three months of the year.

The government department’s forecast, which matches the Reserve Bank’s, assumes the service sector took a major hit from the Canterbury earthquakes, and Treasury officials expect less than 1% growth in the first half of the year, according to their June monthly indicator.

That assessment is softer than a Reuters survey, which is picking 0.4% growth in the first quarter, showing the fastest expansion since the same period a year earlier.

Officials expect economic growth to speed up later in the in the year as tourists arrive for the Rugby World Cup, and the reconstruction of Canterbury becomes more certain.

The forecast comes out ahead of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research’s June quarterly survey of business opinion tomorrow morning, which is expected to show firms are more optimistic about the country’s economy.

Though agricultural exporters are still enjoying record prices for locally-produced materials, private consumption is expected to increase at an annual pace of 2% this year.

High debt levels, which are slowly being worn down, and sluggish income growth are holding back spending, officials said.

June 30 – Headline-attracting Wellington PR shop Saunders Unsworth has scored again, with the appointment of principal Barrie Saunders to the board of state-owned Television New Zealand Ltd.

Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman announced the three-year appointment today.

A former journalist and broadcaster who first turned to lobbying as press secretary for Labour’s Opposition leader Bill Rowling in 1976, Saunders more recently advised the New Zealand Business Roundtable for eight years and is deeply connected in business and political circles, and at the most senior levels of the bureaucracy.

The media spotlight has been on Saunders in recent weeks because, with his business partner, Mark Unsworth, he enjoys security swipe card access to the Parliament Buildings, a privilege otherwise reserved for MPs, parliamentary staff, and the Press Gallery.

Saunders told the privilege was over-stated. “I don’t go swanning around in there lightly. For one

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If you’re among the 39 million Americans on the road for the Fourth of July weekend, you’re burning up hard-earned money with every mile. Pump prices were averaging a hefty $3.55 a gallon across the nation for regular on July 1, so it’s time to fuel up on these gas-saving tips from fueleconomy.gov, swapalease.com and yours truly.

Travel light. You don’t operate as well when you you’re wearing a 20-pound backpack. Your car doesn’t like lugging excessive weight either. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle can reduce miles-per-gallon by 2%. That translates to between 4 and 7 cents a gallon. If you must lug stuff, use the trunk, not a roof rack, which creates a lot of aerodynamic drag.

Stop idling: Sitting still with the engine chugging burns up to half a gallon an hour, so kill the engine when you’re parked. Read full post…

New rules requiring New Zealand banks to carry more capital for rural sector lending will have little effect on interest rates to farm borrowers, since banks have already increased their interest rate margins to reflect growing risks in the sector, the Reserve Bank says.

The new capital adequacy rules, unpopular among the major banks, come into effect from tonight and are part of the RBNZ’s response to the aggressive lending practices that caused a mid-2000’s boom in rural property values, especially for dairy land.

“There is no doubt that banks regard regulatory capital requirements as factors that influence the bank’s cost of capital … at least when they reflect regulatory perceptions of risk that are not shared by banks … can influence the pricing of loan products,” the central bank says in its latest quarterly bulletin.

“There is, however, good reason not to overstate the likely effect.”

During what the bank calls the “boom years”, lending was aggressively priced to gain market share, but rural lending behaviour had changed “materially” more recently to be “much more cautious.”

“That change, entirely a market phenomenon, appears to have led to an increase in the average lending margin on rural loans,” the article says.

In accompanying statement, the RBNZ deputy governor Grant Spencer said: “The changes are expected to have only a minor impact on rural loan margins, as banks have already adjusted pricing considerably over recent years.”

The changes apply only to the four largest banks – ANZ/National, Bank of New Zealand, Westpac and ASB – which were previously permitted to use their own risk management modeling to determine risk weighting for rural lending.

Home of the Parthenon and the setting of Mama Mia, Greece has long been revered as a land of mystery and mythology. Recently, its finances have also become the stuff of legend, as poor accounting has left the ailing country with a 2010 budget shortfall estimated at 10.5% of GDP — approximately $33.4 billion. With proposed austerity measures threatening to tear Greece apart, it’s time for some creative thinking.

In addition to its plans to increase taxes and cut benefits, Greece is also attempting to sell many of its assets. Last year, the government rejected a proposal to sell some of the Greek islands, but this year, it has placed many of its airports, railroads, energy companies and other public works on the auction block. Read full post…