“It’s time we got patriotic about our manufacturing industry”
So says Labour leader David Shearer after his visit this week to Kiwirail’s Hillside workshops in Dunedin. This is like music to my ears.
A View to the South
Australian economy continues to hum
Australian GDP and unemployment data for the June 2012 quarter reveals that, overall, the Australian economy continues to grow strongly. But, the fact that the Reserve Bank of Australia has been lowering the Official Cash Rate throughout 2012 is an indicator that the RBA is worried that this growth will not continue without some help.
August food prices flat on previous month
Food prices increased marginally in August – by 0.1% according to Statistics New Zealand’s latest release of its food price index. The most significant increase came from fruit and vegetable prices, which were 1.5% up in August. Prices for fruit and vegetables tend to rise in winter months and have been rising month on month since April.
EPMU calls summit to tackle job crisis
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing will hold an urgent summit on Friday aimed at tackling the jobs crisis and building a future for manufacturing in New Zealand.
Population projections are what they aren’t
SNZ has released its latest population projections, which sees pockets of growth in Auckland, Tauranga, Selwyn and Queenstown. The rest of the country has tepid growth, while the Central North Island sees population decline.
The government opens its books for 2011/12
As we expected, the risks identified in the Treasury’s July Monthly Economic Indicators squeezed the positives according to the Government’s just released annual accounts for 2011/12.
Food prices decline in September
Food prices eased in September, down by 0.9 percent on the previous month and 0.3 percent on the same month last year. This is consistent with international prices, which are down 4.1 percent on the year. Prices are expected to recover along with the global economy, but also because of unfavourable growing conditions in India, Europe and the US.
Retail growth positive, but headwinds remain
The latest electronic card transactions for the September quarter show that seasonally adjusted retail sales grew at 0.9 percent. This is in line with our June forecast, for annual growth of 3.5-4.0 percent. It was a bit ahead of what might be implied from the Treasury’s Monthly Economic Indicators forecast in August. The MEI had consumption growth of around 0.5 percent per quarter over the rest of 2012, while retail typically tends to grow more slowly than consumption.
Service sector activity slowing and employment contracting
The BNZ-Business NZ’s monthly Performance of Services Index (PSI) assesses the level of business activity in the service sector in New Zealand. A PSI reading of over 50 indicates an expansion in activity and a reading below 50 indicates a contraction. Service sector business activity for the quarter ending in September is slowing, with the PSI 2.4 points lower than the same period last year. Although not contracting, with a PSI for the September quarter of 51.3, service sector activity is low and hasn’t been this low since May 2011. The PSI includes sub-indexes for different business activities such as sales, new orders and employment. Service sector employment contracted for the three months ending in September.