by Nick Clark, National Manager General Policy At a Glance Big spending Budget. Emphasis on cost of living, health, and climate change, plus ‘business support’ and Māori. Surplus return delayed a year. Next year’s will be even bigger. The Big Picture: Hey Big Spender Budget 2022 is being sold by the Government as putting New […]
Economic Week – May 20
by Nick Clark, National Manager General Policy Budget 2022 was a big spending budget with a strong emphasis on cost of living, health, and climate change. Its approach was sold by the Government as putting New Zealand on a path to a ‘Secure Future’. The Government considers its new and increased spending and its […]
Economic Week – March 11
by Nick Clark, National Manager General Policy Farm confidence slumps The results are out from Federated Farmers’ latest six monthly Farm Confidence Survey, undertaken in January by leading agricultural market research company Research First. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the results were negative, in keeping with other business and consumer confidence surveys. General economic conditions (current): […]
Economic Week – February 18
Next week’s OCR call. Next Wednesday the Reserve Bank will review monetary policy settings, including the official cash rate. It’s the first review since 24 November and a lot has happened in the three months since. The economy has been overheating, with inflation high and likely to go higher and unemployment rock bottom. All the […]
Economic Week – February 11
Budget talk from Feds This week Federated Farmers National President Andrew Hoggard presented to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee on our submission to the Budget Policy Statement (BPS). The BPS sets out the Government’s priorities and strategies for the upcoming Budget. Federated Farmers is a regular submitter on the BPS advocating for fiscal responsibility. […]
Economic Week – February 4
by Nick Clark, Group Manager National Policy Here comes another cost This week the Government unveiled an income insurance scheme, an expensive expansion of the welfare state which will cost businesses and employees billions. Under the scheme, a person who loses their job will be given payments worth 80% of their former income (capped at […]
Economic Week – January 28
by Nick Clark, Group Manager National Policy Omicron impacts With Omicron in the community economic consultancy Infometrics this week released a timely report Exploring Omicron’s Potential Economic Impact on New Zealand. The report provides a brief overview of selected topics identified internationally as key economic challenges during the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. […]
Economic Week – January 14
by Nick Clark, Group Manager National Policy Happy New Year and welcome back. Here is Feds’ first economic update for 2022. Plenty in it as it’s been four weeks since our last one for 2021. Banking Survey Just before Christmas we released results from our November 2021 Banking Survey. Overall, they were relatively positive, with […]
Feds notches some gains on Council Long-Term Plans
Federated Farmers has just published its 2021 Rates Report, with the disappointing headline news that rates rises continue to outstrip inflation. In the last decade average rates have jumped a whopping 63% versus CPI increases totalling 18%. Fighting local authority excesses and poor decisions continues to be a major focus for the Federated Farmers policy […]
Economic Week – November 5
Commodity prices set new record. Commodity prices hit new a record high in October, according to ANZ World Commodity Price Index. The World Price Index lifted 2.1% in October compared to September. Dairy prices jumped 3.7%, mainly on the back of tight global milk supply with demand steady. Meat and fibre prices were up 1.6%, […]