Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

Exporters are expected to continue to reap the benefits of a weak dollar and strong demand, despite a drop in prices for key agricultural products, including dairy, forestry and fruit.

Major commodities were traded in US dollars and ASB’s latest commodity index was marginally higher on last year, while a differently calculated and weighted ANZ index was about 6 percent higher on a year ago.

The New Zealand dollar (NZD) traded between 54.85 and 61.2 US cents this year, and for the year to date was about 1.5 percent higher. A weaker NZD meant better export returns.

Dairy prices engulfed by supply

However, the global dairy auctions run by Fonterra had been falling over recent months, putting pressure on the co-op’s mid-point $10 per kilogram of milk solids (kgMS), with its $9.75 forecast more in line with the NZX’s forecast of between $9.68 to $9. 80 kgMS.

NZX dairy analyst Cristina Alvarado said dairy prices had fallen as global volumes increased, however, New Zealand’s grass-fed dairy products were still in strong demand.

“It’s the quality, it’s the flavour, but also the safety that many countries have,” Alvarado said, adding free trade agreements had benefited New Zealand during the ongoing global trade disruption sparked by the introduction of President Donald Trump’s US tariff policies.

“Countries that bought more from the US before, have been buying more from New Zealand,” she said.

Soft NZ dollar helps returns

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said the export sector remained strong, helped by the weak currency, which was also supporting the tourism sector, as visitor numbers increased.

“For most of the last six months to a year, we’ve had the unusual situation where the New Zealand dollar has been a bit weaker at the same time as external prices have been strong and also growing conditions have been good,” Eckhold said.

“Usually, there’s a bit of a counterbalance between some of these sort of factors, but they’ve all pushed in the right direction. Right now, what we’re seeing is the New Zealand dollar weakening, so therefore that’s helping support prices.”

Eckhold said the New Zealand dollar would also continue to be supportive, with its weakness expected to persist until the economy improved and interest rates stabilised.

“I don’t think that the exchange rate is likely to appreciate significantly until such time as it becomes clear that growth is starting to pick up sustainability in New Zealand, and the interest rates are no longer likely to fall,” he said.

“Next year’s outlook remains pretty uncertain still at this stage.”

Eckhold said rural communities were expected to remain resilient to the soft economy, and for dairy farmers to make the most of the likely a large cash payout from the sale of [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/577378/fonterra-ceo-says-lactalis-deal-will-allow-it-to-grow

F onterra’s consumer brands business].

A further confidence boost will also come from the Trump administration’s move to scrap the 15 percent tariff on imported beef and kiwifruit to reduce cost of living pressures on US consumers, although the sometimes erratic US tariff policy is making producers cautious.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Spring came late for the housing market but it arrived last month, the Real Estate Institute says.

It has released its latest data that show the number of sales across the country was up 6.4 percent year-on-year in the month, at 7505.

Gisborne had 70 percent more sales, at 63, the West Coast was up almost 52 percent, to 44 and Taranaki up 26 percent to 184.

The national median Days to Sell decreased by one day to 41 days.

For New Zealand, excluding Auckland, it decreased by two days to 41 days.

The largest reduction in median Days to Sell was observed in Southland, down 13 days from 44 to 31. The greatest year-on-year increase in median Days to Sell was on the West Coast, rising 23 days from 24 to 47 days.

Institute chief executive Lizzy Ryley said even when the figures were seasonally adjusted, activity had picked up more than normal.

“I think at the moment what we are seeing is good weather suddenly appearing made it feel like it was spring.

“The weather just suddenly went form being winter because October was so much better than September.

“Seasonally we were expecting to see something in September which we’ve seen in October. Talking around the country to everybody it feels like it just switched overnight … if the market doesn’t move in October and November when will it move? And it’s moving.”

New Zealand’s median price decreased by 1.1 percent year-on-year, to $786,000. Excluding Auckland, the median price increased by 0.6 percent year-on-year to $710,000. The house price index, which smooths out variation in the median sale price caused by the types of properties selling was up 0.3 percent year-on-year.

Auckland’s median price lifted over $1 million for the first time since March. West Coast and Queenstown Lakes also hit new records.

“It really shows that demand isn’t just holding up, but actually lifting, especially in premium and regional areas,” Ryley said.

Shed said Auckland seemed to be showing more confidence.

“You’ve got people starting to lose that fear of paying too much. They’re starting to go ‘ok it’s safe for me to do something’. There’s also probably a sense of house prices have dropped quite significantly over the last few years…. Now they are stabilising, just moving gently up a bit and people go ‘ok, it’s a good time’.

“I suspect people do feel like it’s likely they’ll stay flattish or level but there is always that feeling that with the OCR impact they could move up … there’s going to be potentially an opportunity.”

New listings continue to rise around the country, up 5.5 percent year-on-year to 12,209. New Zealand, excluding Auckland, also recorded an increase, up 4.2 percent year-on-year to 7783. Inventory levels have returned to over 33,000, up 3.9 percent nationally year-on-year to 33,588.

“First-home buyers continue to be a dominant group across the country, taking advantage of lower interest rates and a stabilised market in terms of price, closely followed by owner-occupiers,” Ryley said.

“Salespeople are telling us that the warmer weather, lower interest rates, and easing lending criteria have brought more people back into the market and boosted activity in many regions, which we can see from the data.”

She said people were optimistic without being too excited. “The cost of living is so high still.”

ANZ economists said prices seemed likely to finish the year at about their forecast for 0.5 percent to 1 percent year-on-year growth.

“However, sales volumes were stronger, rising 4.2 percent month-on-month to be above their historical average, indicating some resilience in demand. Days to sell were steady around their past year’s average. Overall, there hasn’t been any decisive charge in the direction of the market this month, though higher sales volumes provide some tentative evidence of stronger demand.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The electricity sector regulator wants to be able to intervene to control prices for connecting to electricity networks.

The Electricity Authority said some lines companies were charging high up-front costs for connections, which can be a barrier to development, slow down electrification and leave consumers worse off.

The authority’s general manager of networks and system change, Tim Sparks, said high connection fees could affect new housing and commercial developments, EV charging stations and other critical infrastructure.

“Reducing very high up-front charges would help enable and encourage efficient development. Not only is this good for the economy, it means the network costs would be shared among more people on the network.”

He said there were excessively high connection costs in some parts of the country.

“Data indicates a small number of lines companies have been requiring newly connecting customers to pay more than their share,” Sparks said.

He said any controls would be targeted and most of the 29 lines companies and their customers would not be affected.

“This proposal could mean the few lines companies that would be affected respond by increasing their lines charges for existing customers on their network.”

Sparks said any increase would be likely be small, for example in Auckland existing households might initially face an increase of between 22 cents and 66 cents a month.

The regulator is asking for feedback on the proposal along with a move to introduce obligations for when lines companies must offer and maintain connections to their networks.

“We think there should be some obligations for when lines companies must supply electricity. This would provide greater clarity from the outset about lines companies’ obligations for connections.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Meridian Energy is seeking new leeway over the country’s largest hydro lake, in a proposal that has locals and experts conflicted.

The gentailer wants permission to draw Lake Pūkaki down to lower levels than usual – from 518 metres above sea level to 513 – for up to three winters in a row, without needing special approval from Transpower.

It secured referral to the fast-track process in August and said it would carry out a full socio-economic impact assessment as part of its full application.

It was also seeking to reinforce the Pūkaki Dam with rock armouring to handle lower water levels.

Meridian said it would ‘rarely’ need to access contingent storage, “and most likely only a fraction into the available amount”.

However, modelling in the fast track referral documents showed the move could release enough energy to power 75,000 homes and reduce wholesale electricity prices by about seven percent, by removing uncertainty over when Meridian could tap into its backup water storage, letting it plan generation more efficiently.

The company’s general manager of development, Guy Waipara, said the change would reduce the impacts of future droughts by ensuring a steady supply of electricity for New Zealanders.

“Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen how healthy levels in the hydro storage lakes contribute to lower wholesale prices. We’ve calculated that freeing up access to contingent storage is likely to save wholesale purchasers of electricity approximately $500 million a year by reducing the need for the system to rely on expensive thermal fuels,” he said.

For Mt Cook Lakeside Retreat co-owner Kaye Paardekooper, fluctuations in the lake level were nothing new.

However, she wanted to know what the proposed changes would mean for tourism and aquifers, and said Meridian needed to be frank with residents.

“We’re in two camps. We realise how important the power is for New Zealand, and we’re very much into sustainability so we recognise that hydro, it’s actually a very clean energy that’s being generated,” she said.

“I would love to see a visual – to see ‘this is what it looks like now, this is what it’s going to look like’. It’d be good to have more information, even if it’s fast-tracked. As a responsible neighbour – we see Meridian as our neighbours – it’d be nice for them to talk to us.”

Experts caution lake could shrink by a fifth

Earl Bardsley, a hydrologist and associate professor at the University of Waikato, said the option to dip into the lake would give Meridian a buffer during dry years – especially with the country running out of gas “fairly unexpectedly”.

However, he estimated that if Meridian dropped the lake to the minimum 513 metres, it would cause a 20 percent reduction in the lake’s size compared with the existing permitted drawdown, and could expose an additional 35 square kilometres of lakebed.

He said he would not want to see the measure become long-term.

“There’ll be a big visual impact, and that’s not desirable by any means, but we’re getting to somewhat desperate times,” he said.

Earlier this year, the government declined Contact Energy’s fast-track referral application to lower Lake Hāwea’s operating range.

Bardsley said Meridian’s application was different because Lake Pūkaki was in a relatively unpopulated area.

“Pūkaki is the major hydro storage lake in New Zealand, so it’s really geared towards hydro storage. If you had to choose one lake to get something done quickly, you would probably choose Pūkaki. You wouldn’t choose Hāwea, because there are all kinds of implications with the community.”

Environmental questions

Meridian’s experts believed the environmental effects could be kept minor – but in fast-track referral documents, government agencies and councils suggested more information was needed about the impacts on native lizards, black stilts and lakeshore plants.

Commenting on Meridian’s referral application, Transpower said there was merit in the company having greater flexibility to access some of the contingent storage.

However, the national grid operator described it as a “complex” issue.

Transpower executive general manager of operations Chantelle Bramley told RNZ that if contingent hydro storage was used faster or earlier than necessary and it did not rain, New Zealand could run out of energy very quickly.

Contingent storage played a critical role as the country’s fuel of last resort, she said, especially during extended dry periods such as last year’s.

For Meridian’s Guy Waipara, though, last year’s dry period was a key example of why the company needed easier access to contingent storage.

“Meridian is already authorised to utilise Lake Pūkaki from 518m down to 513m, but currently this is controlled by Transpower. During the energy shortage of Winter 2024 we found that by the time approval came through we no longer needed to access that water,” he said.

‘Band-Aid’ fix

Environmental Defence Society chair Gary Taylor argued Meridian’s move to dip into contingent storage was underpinned by wider structural problems.

“The electricity market is not delivering a package of renewables that’s workable quickly enough. And so we’re having to do these Band-Aid fixes as we go along. I think the problem with the market is it was designed in a different era – climate change and pushing hard on renewables wasn’t part of the objective and it’s now out of date. It needs a fundamental reset so that we can build renewables faster,” he said.

He said the fast-track process was too superficial and did not give serious thought to the implications of dropping the lake by up to five metres.

Meridian should offset any loss of biodiversity or landscape with “robust” compensation, he said.

“Meridian has got plenty of resource to do that. What it’s proposing to do is to take what is essentially free water, to increase its profits. It needs to come up with a properly sized compensation package – and that might involve putting more effort into ridding the Mackenzie Basin of wilding pines, for instance, which are ecologically damaging. There are a number of things that they could do.”

Company says lower lake levels ‘highly unlikely’

In a statement, Waipara said Meridian had applied for a three-year timeframe while new electricity generation and battery storage were built “and more robust long-term security settings are developed”.

“The sudden decline of gas as a firming fuel has put additional pressure on New Zealand’s electricity industry, and like others we have had to increase the size of our investment over the coming years and think more broadly about how we produce electricity. We’ve invested more than $1 billion in the past five years, and we have a further $2 billion of investment planned over the next three years,” he said.

Asked about the potential environmental implications, he reiterated that contingent storage would only be accessed “when the country really needs it and most likely only a fraction of the available amount”.

“We care deeply about the wellbeing of native wildlife in the Waitaki Basin. Meridian is working closely with DOC and other partners in the Waitaki Valley through Project River Recovery, which preserves flora and fauna in braided river habitats in the Upper Waitaki Basin.”

Waipara said the application was about “easier access, not access to new depths”.

He said none of the company’s modelling showed lake levels reaching the minimum level of 513 metres above sea level.

“While access to contingent storage may result in the lake being taken below 518 metres, it’s more likely that over the three years of access, that storage will not be used.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

US President Donald Trump has raised the idea of a 50-year mortgage term to help first-home buyers – but would it work for New Zealanders trying to buy houses, too?

Media reported that Trump wants the US Government to back a 50-year mortgage option that would help address concerns about housing affordability.

Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte reportedly said it was “a complete game changer” for home-buyers.

But is it actually a solution?

Ed McKnight, economist at property investment firm Opes Partners, said it could be an expensive one over the long term, although there would be some immediate repayment savings.

He calculated that for every $100,000 of home loan a borrower had, the payment on a loan at 5 percent interest rate would be $19 lower per week lower with a 50-year term than a 30-year one.

“A $600,000 mortgage would save $114 a week in repayments.”

He said home-buyers would also be able to borrow about 13 percent more. Investors might be able to borrow an extra 20 percent.

But the flipside of this would be that the loan overall would become a lot more expensive.

The longer a loan term, the more interest you have to pay overall.

McKnight calculated that it could mean paying $172,000 in interest on every $100,000 of home loan borrowed, compared to $93,000 on a 30-year home loan.

“One of the things I’ve thought for a while is if home ownership is becoming more expensive, because house prices keep going up, what are the different levers that banks or the government could pull in order to make it slightly more affordable? Paying the loan off over a longer period might be one of those levers.”

But he said it was substantially more expensive. “I’m going to take over 60 percent longer to pay off my mortgage but I can only borrow an extra 20 percent if you’re an investor or less than that if you’re an owner-occupier.”

He said it would help people who were on the cusp of mortgage affordability.

But it could also contribute to rising house prices. “If you allow people to borrow 10 percent more money or 20 percent more money it doesn’t necessarily mean that all goes straight into higher house prices and they are 10 percent tot 20 percent higher than they would otherwise be.

“But it is absolutely certain that it would lead to some amount of house price inflation and some of that money would flow through into higher house prices because you’ve got more money in the system but the same number of houses. You might get a few more houses being built because you’ve got some extra demand but initially you would except to see a house price bump.”

While New Zealand borrowers usually take out home loans over a 30-year term, many people pay them off more quickly.

A survey of the banks by RNZ showed significant numbers had paid off more than they needed to – in some cases up to 65 percent of customers.

David Cunningham, chief executive at mortgage broking firm Squirrel, said he thought most people took 25 to 30 years to get from buying their first home to making their final mortgage payment, probably on a different house.

“The average age for a first-home buyer is around 36 and it’s those last few years pre-retirement where the big reductions in the mortgage happen.”

He said people would usually increase their mortgage payment as their income rose over time.

“Pretty consistently most but not all homeowners hit retirement with minimal or no mortgage.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

An economist says US president Donald Trump’s flip-flopping on tariffs has New Zealand businesses on edge.

Trump has cancelled tariffs on several US food imports including beef and kiwifruit.

Sense Partners economist John Ballingall said it was good news for a lot of businesses – but many were still finding it hard to relax.

“The [frequent] changes are making life very difficult for our businesses. When businesses are uncertain they tend not to invest or hire people, and the constant flip-flopping is certainly affecting businesses’ planning,” he said.

“When the global economic environment is uncertain it can be a bit risky making big investment decisions or hiring a whole bunch of people because you don’t know how the market’s going to change.”

“Right now the US economy is very hard to predict and that makes long term planning very difficult … They’re both nervous and fully expect Trump to change his mind again.”

Trump’s latest reversal could be a sign of things to come, Ballingall said.

“I think what we will see over the next few months is that US consumers, and therefore voters, are starting to get very frustrated with the high cost of living and that’s what has driven the cancellation of these tariffs,” he said.

“If inflation continues to increase in the US, which most people expect it will do, then it’s entirely possible that we could see more tariffs come off.”

The approaching midterms could ramp up that pressure further, he said.

“The fact that US voters are starting to become much more concerned about cost of living issues will be troubling the administration, because the midterm elections are now not that far away and they probably don’t want to be going into those elections fighting a cost of living crisis,” Ballingall said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Got questions? RNZ has launched anew podcast, ‘No Stupid Questions’, with Susan Edmunds.

We’d love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy. You can send through written questions, like these ones, but even better, you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@rnz.co.nz.

You can also sign up to RNZ’s new money newsletter, ‘Money with Susan Edmunds’.

When I remarried, I kept my home and rented it to help pay off the mortgage.

I have made a loss for the past few years, as the house required quite a few serious repairs, due to its age. For the past two years, my son and partner have been renting it.

I am retiring this year and have little superannuation. My question is, when I sell it at the end of next year, how can I give my children $150,000 each, without them being hit with a tax of some sort?

You shouldn’t have any tax to pay on money you give to your children.

New Zealand no longer has a gift duty, but you may need to be aware that this could count against you, if you apply for a rest home subsidy in the future.

You can only gift up to $8000 per person per year in the five years before you apply for a subsidy or $27,000 per year for gifts made five years ago.

We discussed this on the podcast an episode or so back, if you want more information.

If that is a concern to you, you could seek some advice from a lawyer on the best way to manage it.

With many people working two or even three part-time jobs with low pay, there is a problem with being eligible for the full government contributions.

If part of your full contribution comes from one job and the remainder from another job, I was told you are not eligible for the full government contribution. I found myself in this position – nowhere is this explained.

On enquiring why I didn’t receive the full government contribution, I was told that the minimum amount for qualifying for the full contribution has to come from one source – multiple sources do not qualify.

You’ve been misled here.

Inland Revenue confirms this is “totally untrue”.

“You can contribute from as many sources as you like – multiple employers, direct contributions – and they all count towards your total contributions, which are included in the annual government contribution calculation.”

Employer contributions don’t count towards your $1042 required to get the full contribution, though, only what you put in yourself.

Every time my home loan comes up for refixing and I have to worry about which term to choose, I wonder why don’t New Zealand banks offer a 30-year, home-loan fix like people can get in the US?

Wouldn’t that be a better option?

In the United States, it’s possible to lock in a 30-year mortgage term when you buy a house and stick with that interest rate the entire time, unless you sell and move.

In New Zealand, that’s not an option. We can generally fix for terms out to five years, and 1-2 years are usually the most popular.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said one was just the size of the New Zealand home-loan market.

When banks lend money, they have to know that they can get funding on the other side at interest rates that work for them.

New Zealand’s market is not really big enough for banks to be able to manage that interest rate risk.

“If we were to offer those long-term rates, they’d often be more expensive than otherwise, because banks have to hedge their bets a bit on what they would be repaid over time,” Olsen said.

“If it’s not as big a market, if there’s risk, they have to price that risk, which would make this more expensive.”

In the US, government mortgage entities like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association, which bundles loans into mortgage-backed securities) help to manage this.

At times, New Zealand banks have offered a seven or 10-year mortgage option, but they have not been hugely popular.

“Barely anyone took it, so the banks are going, ‘well, I have to make sure all the funding lines up, but also barely anyone calls me about them’, so they are a lot of effort to do and very little return.

“Yes, people crave stability, but there’s realistically not quite as big of a market and not quite as much of an ability to fund those loans over the long term.”

The US is a bit of an outlier – other countries don’t really do it either.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Higher food prices could have New Zealanders rethinking their Christmas meal plans – and a barbecue is likely to be an expensive option, one economist says.

Infometrics has released its latest Grocery Supplier Cost Index, which measures the change in the cost of grocery goods charged to Foodstuffs supermarkets.

It shows there was an average annual increase of 2.5 percent in October.

“October’s rise was the fastest pace of supplier cost increases since mid-2024,” said Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen.

“Material cost increases for a number of key items continue to drive an acceleration… with protein cost rises now a more dominant driver.

“Underlying costs for other items, like chocolate, are also continuing to rise. Supply constraints globally, relative to demand for these items, are pushing costs higher, which are influencing domestic cost decisions too. Supply has improved for dairy products, which has limited cost increases and seen some relief in high butter prices.”

Month on month, just over 3200 products increased in cost from September to October 2025.

Seafood costs were up 4.5 percent, bakery almost 4 percent and butchery just behind.

Chilled foods were up just under 3.5 percent.

“It’s less that you’re seeing everything or a lot of items increasing in cost, it’s instead that you’re seeing some bigger increases for some specific and fairly vital household costs.

“Not only was it beef, not only mince, but steaks as well, an increase coming through for lamb and for fish… the protein story I think is pretty well understood but it’s been a key part of the increase whereas the likes of butter have eased back.”

Produce prices should ease into the summer months, he said, but there was little sign that the price of meat and fish would fall.

“Supply is limited both in New Zealand and overseas and demand is still strong.

“If you look at the recent livestock kills in New Zealand, both lamb and beef kills over the 12 months to September were sitting 3.9 percent lower than a year ago which is why you’re still seeing those slaughter prices, input costs and similar increasing. We’ve got less meat coming through at the moment so all of that is contributing.”

He said while 2.5 percent was uncomfortable it was nowhere near the double-digit percentage increases of recent years.

“But I think part of feeling it is just how noticeable it is, you go for a shop at least once a week at least, if not sometimes once a day, that means it is so much more in your face… especially coming into summer when people often think about doing bigger shared meals and the cost starts to come up a lot more.”

He said people might be thinking about adjusting their Christmas plans.

“I would expect to see less steak, burgers, mince patties or lamb roasts this year and probably more chicken or pork chops.”

There could be more demand for ham, he said.

“Domestic pork slaughter numbers are actually up on a year ago. None of these are massively material but at the margins they do start to make a bit of difference so I’d be expecting a bit more focus on Christmas hams and that sort of thing this year. Chicken from a relatively affordable point of view… trying to think about doing a barbecue is a pretty expensive endeavour these days.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A new report reveals that ethnic businesses contributed $87 billion to New Zealand’s GDP in 2023, an increase from $64 billion in 2021.

The Economic Contribution of Ethnic Communities 2001-2023 report – commissioned by four organisations, including the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Ministry for Ethnic Communities – was unveiled at the Ethnic Xchange Symposium in Auckland on Friday.

The symposium, organised by the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, followed last year’s inaugural event in an attempt to boost economic growth and expand ethnic enterprises.

Nearly 500 ethnic representatives attended the event alongside Finance Minister Nicola Willis, Ethnic Communities Minister Mark Mitchell and Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing Chris Penk.

Mervin Singham, chief executive at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, said an additional $10 billion in untapped potential was waiting to be unlocked.

“That is quite a big contribution,” Singham said.

“Our recent research has highlighted that more can be done to unlock entrepreneurial capability of that community. This is why we have symposiums like this to continue to lift that contribution.”

Ethnic businesses make up one in five of all New Zealand enterprises, reflecting nearly the communities’ population share of 25 percent, according to the Ministry for Ethnic Communities.

Asian-owned firms export goods worth almost double the national average, the ministry said.

Dave Ananth, president of the New Zealand Malaysia Business Association, highlighted the importance of government engagement and people-to-people ties.

“I think there should be more engagements, not once a year, but more often things like this,” he said, adding that the hundreds of participants can all act as ambassadors for New Zealand.

“I think people need to understand that business in Asia is building trust,” Ananth said. “It’s who you know rather than what you know.”

Ananth said it was easy for him to pick up the phone and ring contacts in another country to conduct business and he would also happily introduce New Zealand business to his friends overseas.

He also encouraged business to think outside the box and look for business opportunities, for example in a country that’s less well-known.

John Hong, an investment consultant, was encouraged to see that many people from all ethnic backgrounds – especially younger generations – participated in the event.

He said the government should try to retain staff who were knowledgeable and skilled, calling for a stronger continuation of government policies.

“There has also been a high level of staff turnover within government agencies … especially after the pandemic,” Hong said.

“If an entire agency ends up being staffed with new people, then of course they don’t understand the international environment, and they don’t understand the domestic context either,” he said.

“There’s no continuity. If you don’t know the past, how can you possibly plan for the future?

“It takes time for [new people] to know each other and settle in. But with elections every three years, the cycle is so short that many things simply don’t have enough time to get off the ground.”

Supporting female entrepreneurs

The symposium also unveiled a report titled Ethnic Women Entrepreneurs on Friday that was also commissioned by the Ministry for Ethnic Communities.

The report said four in 10 of ethnic business owners were women, facing challenges that “reflect the combined effects of gender, ethnicity, migration status and systemic bias”.

Structural barriers, cultural disconnects and persistent under-representation characterised ethnic women’s entrepreneurship, the report said.

While ethnic communities comprised 25 percent of the employed workforce as of May 31, women from ethnic communities earned 16.4 precent less per hour than European men, it said.

Speaking at a panel focusing on stories of ethnic female entrepreneurs, KPMG partner Bineeta Nand said it was hard for ethnic women to secure bank loans or venture capital and, as a result, they needed to rely on personal loans and community funding, which could restrict their project’s scalability.

“Think about those stereotypes and biases that you might have when you’re looking at another ethnic woman in business or a proposal or an application for funding,” she said.

“I think that’s where we can actually start making a difference. Unless we start changing some of those mind sets, we … will be having the same discussion again.”

Singham said women entrepreneurs were most successful because they were highly relational in a multi-dimensional way.

He said the report would provide an insight into how to better support this cohort of entrepreneurs.

“We want to make sure that there’s a bit more of an even keel for ethnic women entrepreneurs to be supported,” Singham said.

“We feel there’s more support that could be put in place to support ethnic women entrepreneurs.”

Singham said there had been more engagement between business councils and ethnic businesses after last year’s symposium.

“The government is taking into account more of what ethnic communities [and] businesses are saying about immigration, regulatory settings in the country and so on, and this is an ongoing conversation that we’ve started,” he said.

However, he hoped the “ethnic community’s voice could be heard a little bit more”.

Mitchell said ethnic businesses were a “huge enabler and competitive advantage” for New Zealand.

“We’ve got diasporas with entrepreneurs, businesspeople, business leaders [and] people with deep connections back to countries that we want to increase our trading relationships, our sporting relationships, our cultural relationships,” he said.

He said the government was very focused on taking big trade delegations that were always heavy in presence with ethnic leaders to leverage the relationships they had.

Mitchell said the government was working on identifying and reducing red tape.

“The government should be pulling the levers … to support and help our entrepreneurs, business leaders [and] businesses grow, and give them an environment so they can grow unimpeded,” he said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Manufacturing activity expands, rises 1.3 points to 51.4 – above 50 is expansion
• Four of five sub-indexes also in expansion – employment still contracting
• Manufacturing expanded four months in a row, first time in three years

New Zealand’s manufacturing sector expanded for a fourth consecutive month in October, led by a rise in new orders and improved demand.

The BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance Of Manufacturing Index (PMI) for October rose by 1.3 points to 51.4 from 50.1 in September.

A reading above 50.0 indicates expansion.

BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said the lift to 51.4 from September’s 50.1 was not large, but was moving in the right direction.

“The October result sees the PMI now boasting four consecutive months above the break even 50 mark for the first time in three years.”

BusinessNZ director of advocacy Catherine Beard said that after two months of flatlining activity in the sector, at least October showed more signs of life.

“Four of the five sub-index values were in expansion during October, lead by New Orders, which showed its highest level of expansion since August 2022.”

Production and Finished Stocks also rose, but Employment remains in contractionary territory at 48.1.

Steel said manufacturers were still shedding workers and employment was usually the last sector to rise in an economic recovery.

Manufacturers were also less negative above the future, the proportion of negative comments fell in October to 54.1 percent, down from 60.2 percent in September and 58.1 percent in August.

Manufacturers reported a lift in orders and improved demand, helped by seasonal activity, new customers/products, and signs of economic confidence returning.

Many also noted better efficiency and productivity, with process improvements and automation supporting stronger sales and output.

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