Supermarkets under the spotlight. The Commerce Commission this week released a hard-hitting draft report on competition in the retail grocery sector, with supermarkets not coming out of it well. The Commission found problems and they’re mainly with the structure of the market. In competitive terms the major retailers, Woolworths NZ and Foodstuffs, are a duopoly […]
Economic Week – July 23
GDT down again. Dairy prices slipped again at this week’s Global Dairy Trade auction, its seventh consecutive fall stretching back three over three months. Overall, the GDT Price Index was down 2.9% compared to the previous auction a fortnight ago. Whole milk powder, by far the biggest traded by volume, was down 3.8%, while skim […]
Economic Week – July 16
Stimulus reduced. The Reserve Bank caused ripples this week with its decision to wind back on its extraordinary monetary stimulus. Although it kept its Official Cash Rate on hold at 0.25%, the Reserve Bank announced it would be ceasing its programme of large scale asset purchases from 23 July 2021, almost a year ahead of […]
Economic Week – July 2
Rural confidence rises. Strong agricultural commodity prices and a positive outlook for them have driven a third consecutive lift in New Zealand farmer confidence, according to Rabobank’s latest Rural Confidence Survey. After 10 consecutive negative surveys, farmer confidence returned to net positive territory in the March 2021 quarter, with more farmers optimistic than pessimistic in […]
Economic Week – June 25
After plenty of action last week, this week has been a quiet one for economic data, with just a couple of statistical releases. Farm sales still strong. The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ)’s latest Rural Property Statistics shows there were 439 farm sales in the three months to May 2021, up 78.5% on […]
Economic Week – June 18
GDP surprisingly strong….will rates rise sooner? Despite continued border restrictions keeping out international tourists and despite Auckland being in alert level 3 lockdown for 10 days, March quarter’s Gross Domestic Product was undeniably strong. Quarterly growth of 1.6% came in well ahead of economists’ expectations, including the Reserve Bank which had been forecasting a 0.6% […]
Economic Week – June 11
Bank satisfaction continues to wane. Last Friday, Federated Farmers released the results from its May 2021 Banking Survey. It showed a further slippage in farmer satisfaction in banking relationships, a trend evident since late 2017. Our media release is here and the full report can be found here. The key results were: 62% of farmers […]
Economic Week – June 4
Record high for commodity prices. The ANZ Commodity Price Index has had another positive month, with the World Price Index up 1.3% for the month of May and up 24.4% for the year. The Index has risen for eight consecutive months and it has been pushed to a new record high (at least since the […]
Fighting for the rural ratepayer
By Nigel Billings and Nick Clark Winter is upon us and Federated Farmers is in the thick of it fighting for hard-working farmers against the rates hordes. It’s a hard battle but one worth fighting. We’re staring down the barrel at a swarm of huge rates rises which will add thousands to many farmers’ rates […]
Economic Week – May 21
Budget 2021. The big economic news for the week was, of course, the Budget. For my account of Budget 2021 and what it means for farming click here. For the rest of the week’s economic news read on… Dairy prices slip again. This week’s Global Dairy Trade auction was its third consecutive fall, albeit just […]