GATTUNG: Former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung has been appointed to chair the new strong wools company set up by farmers and rural services company PGG Wrightson. The Wool Company has bought Wrightson’s strong wool business for $37.5 million -- less than the initially-announced sale price of $46 million. PGG has said the lower final price reflects the exclusion of its mid-micron business from the sale, closing debt levels and final due-diligence adjustments. The... more>

INVESTMENT: Investor confidence in New Zealand rallied over the previous quarter despite investors predicting inflation and the economy would continue to deteriorate over the next three months. In the latest ING Investor Dashboard Survey, 9 percent of New Zealand investors spoken to had increased confidence in the previous quarter. Seventy one percent expected inflation to continue to worsen and 53 percent were concerned the New Zealand economy would continue to deteriorate. ING New... more>

INFLATION: Soaring food and petrol prices pushed annual inflation up to 4 percent in the June year after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) leapt a higher than expected 1.6 percent in the June quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. The department reported food prices rose 8.2 percent in the June year -- the highest rise in the Food Price Index (FPI) for 18 years. The annual inflation rate rose from 3.4 percent in the March year and has now been outside the Reserve Bank’s 1-3 percent... more>

RETAIL: Retail sales had their biggest drop in more than four years in May, adding weight to the case for an early interest rate cut. Total sales fell a seasonally adjusted 1.2 percent in May, or $69 million -- the biggest monthly decline since February 2004, led by lower car and furniture sales . They were much weaker than marke t forecasts of a 0.2 increase, and completely erased April’s 1.2 percent gain. Analysts said the data in itself was not as important as tomorrow’s... more>

FINANCE: Developer Dave Henderson says the receivership of his Five Mile Holdings project in Queenstown is symptomatic of the "mess" the finance industry is in. Yesterday Hanover Finance said it had instructed security trustee FMH Nominees to appoint a receiver "as a result of un-remedied loan defaults". Mr Henderson, the subject of a feature film about his four-year successful battle with Inland Revenue over tax payments, said lender Hanover and secondary lenders, NZ Castle of the US and... more>

ECONOMY: Manufacturing activity dropped in June to its third lowest level since starting in 2002, according to a survey released today. The Bank of New Zealand -- Business NZ seasonally adjusted performance of manufacturing index (PMI) was at 45.7 points last month, with anything below 50 points indicating activity is contracting. BNZ senior markets economist Craig Ebert said the notable outcome of the survey was the reports of soaring input costs. It would seem that raw material costs... more>

POST: New Zealand Post says it is not holding up mail without new postcodes, after the introduction of its new postal address standards last week. An Auckland business association has accused NZ Post of taking up to five days to deliver a standard letter from Auckland to Wellington without a postcode, instead of about three days. "We’re hearing stories of businesses having important documents held up, and no doubt people’s cards are arriving late for birthdays because of this... more>

ENERGY: The Electricity Commission is reviewing how the electricity market can be improved in areas such as competition, prices and affordability. Releasing its options paper today, the commission said it also intended to review at the end of winter how operations in a dry year were managed, given the low storage levels in hydro lakes. That review would look at current arrangements in the lead up to winter, market responses to tight supply, and the reserve energy scheme. The commission... more>

ECONOMY: Businesses are the most pessimistic about their future in 26 years, according to today’s Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO) which pointed to a recession lasting at least three quarters of the year. And economists expected the Reserve Bank to begin cutting interest rates this month at the earliest, despite the survey’s worsening inflation outlook. A net 18 percent of firms reported a decline in their own activity, and the same proportion also expected activity... more>

ECONOMY: New Zealand may already be in recession, a monthly Treasury report said today. "The past month has seen the release of data that confirm a sharp slowing of growth in early 2008 and point to further weakness in the June 2008 quarter," the June report said. "It is possible that the economy has experienced a technical recession (where real GDP declines for two consecutive quarters) in the first half of 2008." Drought and weaker domestic demand saw the economy contract 0.3 percent... more>