Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Share markets around the world have hit records this week, undeterred by war, rising interest rates and pressure on fuel supplies.

The S&P500 and Nasdaq have been hovering around all-time highs, the FTSE 100 is not far off its February record, and the Russell 2000 is at a high.

Almost all global sharemarkets are looking exceptionally healthy, given the geopolitical tension – with the notable exception of New Zealand’s.

So what is going on?

Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said markets were having a great time, despite the upheaval happening around the world.

“I think there are a couple of things going on.

“One is the US economy. That continues to be stronger than anticipated. I think there is continued belief that the US economy is strong. There is not any sign of recession in the short term.

“That continues to help … over the last four years we seem to be consistently oscillating between is the economy about to take a dive or not. But with the tax refunds that have come out of the US people are expecting actually that we could see another acceleration in the economy.

“The other piece is that we like tech again. We didn’t like tech two or three months ago. The big tech names and the AI names, I think we’re starting to see with Claude and others a massive realisation and recognition of what these tools are going to do and what they can do.

“Microsoft is up 15 percent in the last couple of weeks. We’re just starting to see that come through again … all of a sudden the worst case scenarios around oil and energy aren’t quite coming rue and we’ve got good news around tech in the economy which is driving things higher as well.”

Generate investment specialist Greg Smith said markets in Europe and Asia were doing well, too.

“Equity markets are looking through the current tensions, to a de-escalation and looking through to the broader resilience of the economy. The US earnings season has got off to a pretty good start. There’s still plenty of optimism around the growth that AI and tech-related companies are delivering.”

He said the resilience of equity markets was notably different from what had been seen in commodity markets, particularly oil. “Oil has had huge volatility and has been up as much as 80 percent. It’s been down, it’s been up, it’s been down … it’s been up again with the latest deadline approaching.”

He said equity markets seemed to have a glass half full approach while bond markets were taking a half-empty stance. “They’re more focused on the long-term inflationary outcomes.”

He said things could change if the conflict in the Middle East dragged on.

“Equity markets will probably reprice it more if the conflict is a longer lasting one … but overall the equity market is pretty resilient.”

Mike Taylor, founder of Pie Funds, said he thought market participants put a lot on hedging through March.

“Then as oil prices didn’t move to the worst case scenario and the S&P500 rallied, those shorts had to be covered, which has caused the market to rally like a home-sick angel.

“I agree that it does seem odd give that inflation is higher and growth is lower as a result of the war, but you could have said the same after the tariffs.”

But what about NZ?

New Zealand is a notable underperformer.

Carlyon said the country’s economy was highly leveraged to interest rates.

“Whether that be because they’ve got the dividends … the utilities are kind of largely there for dividends, and then we’ve got the property companies all there for the dividends. We’ve got a very weak property market which also relates to it.

“The third thing impacting the New Zealand market right now is there is a lot of nervousness around the gentailers and what happens there. They make up a big chunk of our market.

“If you think about what’s working off shore at the moment, it’s technology, defence and energy. The only thing we’ve got out of those three is clean energy. Bu that’s actually domestic electricity and that’s got a whole lot of regulatory risk floating around it.

“There is probably a strong argument that the politicians cannot let electricity prices get much higher before they are going to have to intervene so that … caps the upside for those gentailers.”

Smith agreed New Zealand had not yet caught up. “We’re around 6 percent from the record highs we saw in January.

“We were quite different economically. We’re running below par growth and were just coming into a mini recovery as the conflict hit. We haven’t [got] the same tech exposure in our markets and we’re a net importer of oi l… There’s economic headwinds there.

“I think if our economy can get going, if we see a relatively short war and if the conflict sort of comes to its conclusion in the coming weeks, then maybe New Zealand can get by without rate hikes. I think that will help the picture a lot.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

People receiving a benefit may not realise the impact a KiwiSaver hardship withdrawal could have on their entitlements, one provider says.

Graham Allpress, group general manager of client service delivery at the Ministry of Social Development, said every situation would be different but anyone who was thinking about making a KiwiSaver withdrawal should check to understand how it could affect their benefit payments.

In March, there was more than $49 million withdrawn from KiwiSaver for financial hardship reasons, by 5610 people.

Both the number of people withdrawing and the total amount were higher than in March 2025.

There were more than 60,000 hardship withdrawals in the year to March, about three times the typical pre-pandemic rates.

Allpress said a one-off KiwiSaver withdrawal would not generally be considered income for benefit purposes.

“However, if a person made periodical withdrawals from their KiwiSaver due to hardship, for example, every three months, such payments could potentially be considered income for benefit purposes.

“Under the Social Security Act 2018, a person’s income includes any periodical payments made to the person from any source and used by them for income-related purposes whether or not the payments are capital.

“The withdrawn amount will also be considered a cash asset, which may affect benefits such as Accommodation Supplement or Temporary Additional Support.

“The amount someone can withdraw before it impacts their payments will depend on any income they are also receiving from other sources and any cash assets they already have.”

Ana-Marie Lockyer said the rules could catch people out because they were not likely to be top of anyone’s mind when they were making a withdrawal decision.

“I looked into it and it isn’t a KiwiSaver-specific rule-it’s how the benefit system works. Once money is withdrawn from KiwiSaver, it’s treated like any other income or asset. The issue is that people don’t naturally think of their KiwiSaver that way, which is where the disconnect happens.

“Where it could become an issue is for people making regular or staged withdrawals, particularly if they’re also receiving accommodation support. What feels like a sensible way to manage their savings could unintentionally affect their entitlements. It’s a good reminder that decisions around KiwiSaver-especially withdrawals-don’t happen in isolation. Understanding the downstream impacts, including on benefits, is really important.”

Allpress said people should also contact MSD to see whether they could access any other help without needing to tap into their KiwiSaver accounts.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A global report forecasts a wave of layoffs in the tech sector, attributed directly or indirectly to AI implementation and workflow automation, is expected to continue through to the end of the year.

The report estimates nearly 80,000 tech-sector jobs were lost world-wide since the beginning of the year, including 4450 in Australia.

“Automation, artificial intelligence integration, and sustained cost-discipline measures continue to drive much of the downsizing, with entire departments restructured or eliminated in favour of leaner, AI-assisted workflows,” United States-based personal finance and trading education platform RationalFX said.

Microsoft ANZ chief technology officer Sarah Carney said AI-related skills were in high demand, with LinkedIn, which was part of Microsoft, seeing a 300 percent increase in job ads emphasising AI skills.

Carney said Microsoft was working to address an industry shortage of skilled workers with 200,000 training opportunities in New Zealand, in addition to 100,000 previously announced.

“So 300,000 new AI skill sets in New Zealand, but really focused on how do we help people evolve skills for the work of tomorrow,” Carney said.

“We like looking at AI skills across the spectrum, and particularly for entry level skills. Because what we need to be thinking about is, how do we transform the workforce we have.

“We know that there will be changes to how people work. So now we need to actually think about how do we give them the skills for those new jobs that we see evolving, as they evolve.”

She said older people were in a strong position to make the most of AI tools.

More experienced workers were able to figure out faster how to make the most of AI than others who were born in the digital age and had little or no experience with analogue processes.

Carney said older people appeared to have little trouble adapting to AI.

She said younger people were experimenting with AI, while older workers were using it to best advantage.

“It turns out the older generation is actually really good at AI because they know what their job involves. They know where the value sits, and it’s really easy for them to offload things to AI — the admin, the pieces that they never loved doing but had to do, and they can find value in a fundamentally different way.”

A recent SEEK report also pointed to an increased demand for AI specialists.

“The demand for AI-related skills in job ads has more than quadrupled over the last decade,” the Seek AI Gauge report said.

The type of skills related to AI jobs included machine learning and large language models with the prevalence of terms related to Agentic AI and AI governance.

The SEEK report also said marketing and communications roles featuring AI terms had grown sharply in recent years.

“Despite this increase, the total number of ads asking for AI-related skills remains relatively small,” SEEK said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Air New Zealand is considering setting up an aviation engineering school in Kerikeri, Northland MP Grant McCallum says.

The MP said the company was working with high schools, local hapū Ngāti Rēhia, and aviation industry stakeholders to decide whether a vocational training school would work.

McCallum said it would be “a major shot in the arm for Northland” if it went ahead, and could help ease staff shortages in the country’s aviation sector.

He said the school would likely be built near Bay of Islands Airport, but details of the potential timeline or student numbers were not yet known.

“They want to take investment into the wider regions, rather than just the big centres. They feel there’s an opportunity to help Northland, particularly younger people who haven’t has got as many educational opportunities as people in other parts of the country.”

He said the feasibility study was considering student demand, delivery options, facilities, regulatory requirements and employment pathways.

It would go ahead only if a viable, sustainable and appropriately governed model could be found, McCallum said.

Air New Zealand chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar was in Kerikeri on Sunday to discuss the proposal.

The proposal comes amid a major shakeup of vocational training in Northland.

NorthTec, the region’s biggest training provider, had been cutting jobs and courses as it tried to become financially viable.

Last week the government announced funding of $34.7 million to help NorthTec move from its present Raumanga campus to a proposed Whangārei Knowledge Education and Arts Hub in the central city, subject to a successful business case.

Last year Northland’s biggest hospitality training provider, QRC Te Tai Tokerau, shut down in Paihia after a decade of operation.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

BNZ has reduced the number of interest-free days available on two of its credit cards, in response to new interchange fee rules.

When credit cardholders clear their balance each month, there is a period of time in which new purchases on the card are interest-free.

This has typically been up to 55 days.

But BNZ said in February it reduced two of its cards to 44 days. The BNZ Lite Visa retains its 55 days.

“With new interchange fee regulations introduced in December, BNZ opted to review its credit card and rewards offerings to ensure they remain fit for purpose now and in the future.

“As part of this review, we surveyed credit card holders from across the country about their credit card priorities and preferences. The findings were clear, with rewards and points programmes cited as the most important feature when choosing a credit card, while increases to annual fees was cited as the top concern.

“We used this data to help guide targeted changes to ensure we continue to provide value to our customers in the areas they care most about – such as retaining rewards and avoiding increased annual card fees – while supporting the long-term sustainability of the programme.”

Interchange fees are charged when transactions are processed on a credit card. The Commerce Commission has been concerned they were too high and said its new settings, which lower what can be charged, should save businesses $500 a year on average.

Consumer NZ spokesperson Jessica Walker said banks were earning less money as a result of the new rules and would be rethinking benefits.

“Interest free days are effectively a cost to the banks, so by reducing the number of days, they reduce their costs and increase their chances of making interest off customers.”

But she said, at the same time, many businesses were still charging customers surcharges at a level set before the fees dropped. Shoppers had not yet received the benefit of the reduction.

“Without a surcharge ban, consumers face a dual burden: excessive and unavoidable surcharges at the point of sale as well as reduced card benefits following interchange reductions. When interchange fees were reduced in December 2025, businesses costs to accept card payments were reduced. It was estimated that businesses would save around $90 million a year. We are concerned that those promised savings are not always passed through by retailers. This is an issue that needs addressing.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Kiwibank is the latest bank to raise home loan interest rates, as concern grows about the future path of inflation.

It said it was increasing a number of its fixed-term home loans.

The one-year special lifts from 4.59 percent to 4.65 percent. The two-year special rises from 5.09 percent to 5.29 percent, the three-year from 5.45 percent to 5.55 percent, the four-year from 5.79 percent to 5.89 percent and the five-year from 5.89 percent to 5.99 percent.

It follows a similar move from Westpac last week. On Friday, Westpac sais it was lifting its one-year home loan rates by 10 basis points and its 18-month rate by 14.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernna said the one-year rate would still be attractive to borrowers because it was lower, but the three-year rate was offering certainty at a price that was still “pretty close”.

“If you’re with BNZ and can still access their three-year 5.29 percent rate, I’d be locking it in ASAP.”

He said wholesale rates had not moved a huge amount over the past couple of weeks, so it was not immediately clear what had sparked the recent bank moves.

They might have been holding off a bit, he said, hoping wholesale markets would fall again but had to move when they didn’t.

“It’s probably the overall trend that you’d expect, given inflation and price pressures.”

He said it seemed likely that other banks would move in a similar way.

“They do tend to sort of follow each other. So you’re probably going to see the likes of ASB and BNZ following at some stage.”

He said Tuesday’s inflation update had been worse than expected, which meant the Reserve Bank potentially had less room to move going into the current fuel price crisis.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Taxidermists and butchers are in the middle of their busy season, the roar.

The roar, or rut period, runs from late March through until early May when red and sika stags will roar to ward off rivals and attract females.

It makes it a popular time for hunters to get out into the bush and nab a prime pair of antlers for their wall.

“Once the reds start roaring, it really, really gets busy,” said Oliver Garland of All Over Taxidermy.

Based in Taras and Central Otago, and a keen hunter himself, he became a full-time taxidermist five years ago after getting into it as a hobby.

Garland described it as “sculpture with an unusual medium”.

He mostly sees a lot of red stags, fellow bucks, chamois and tar through his studio.

“The trouble with being a taxidermist is I have to be home during the busy season.

“In terms of what comes in, I had 10 animals in February. I had about 35 come in March, and I’m expecting 120 to 150 in April.”

Garland said mounting a red stag can take over 25 hours, but it can’t be done all at once, which means his turnaround time is usually within a year.

His advice for hunters?

“Get it to me as soon as possible, and if you can’t, get it cold. If it’s going to be more than two days in a chiller, it needs to be frozen.

“The other one would be, don’t drag it on the rocks, on the ground. It’s real easy to damage hair when it’s being dragged around. Skin it in the spot where you killed it, if you possibly can, and then carry it.”

For the non-hunters, Garland said there was a misconception that taxidermy might smell bad and be a bit gross.

But he said it was actually a very clean process. If it smells, the animal’s already ruined.

Jordan Hamilton-Bicknell of Wild Game in Hastings said the business did a lot of homekill as well as venison processing.

“[It’s] very, very hectic. We’ve had a fire at the shop, so we didn’t get back into our processing plant until the 30th of March, which falls on a short week. And every Easter is when 80 percent of the hunters will do their annual road trip to their family, friends, or into the public land. So we just get inundated with stags and hinds and all sorts.”

Also a keen hunter, he said he had definitely noticed an increase with the ongoing cost of living crunch.

“With the huge population of deer around the country and the price of meat, there’s lots of people trying to utilise what they’re catching and harvesting. And in turn, they bring it in and we specialise in turning sort of smelly stags into very good tasty products, which is sort of what everyone’s after.”

Hamilton-Bicknell said they had a minimum of 8kg per batch – it meant that if a hunter brought in a “well-dressed big stag” they could get up to four or five different options from that animal, including patties, sausages and mince to fill up the freezer.

He said these could be especially good options for red stags which could “get tough” and are “a little stronger” – his tip for masking this though is using plenty of garlic, especially in mince dishes like spaghetti bolognese.

“Regardless of what meat you deliver to a butcher, even if you’re cutting it up at a home, go into the hills prepared,” he said.

This meant having a sharp knife to bone meat out, and the appropriate bags to put it in. Hunters could even take bits of string to be able to hang legs up so they were not boning out things in the ground and getting them covered in different contaminants.

“Focus on getting it cooled down straight away. The big one is getting the animal cold so as soon as possible and looking after that meat.

“All those little details in turn helps us when it comes in.”

Hamilton-Bicknell expected things would just start to settle down on the deer front as hunters moved into duck shooting season.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Business sentiment has plummeted in the first quarter of this year as the Middle East conflict weighed on confidence.

The Institute of Economic Research’s December quarter business survey shows a net one percent of respondents think economic conditions will improve in coming months, compared to 39 percent in the December survey.

That is the lowest level of confidence since September 2024.

Confidence diverged across industries. Construction had the most negative outlook while manufacturing had the highest confidence.

But firms reported demand remained steady, with the number expecting a future improvement easing only slightly to 13 percent.

Firms planned to invest more and hire staff but also expected higher costs.

NZIER principal economist Christina Leung said cost and pricing pressures suggested the risk of persistent inflation remaine low, as weak demand limited the ability of businesses to raise prices.

She expected the Reserve Bank to start hiking interest rates in July.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand