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Photo: 123rf Food wholesaler Gilmours is freezing prices of essential products in a move it says will help struggling hospitality businesses - but there is no such move planned for households as food price inflation stalls. Products included in the freeze for hospitality businesses are from grocery, chilled and frozen, liquor, beverage and general merchandise categories. Gilmours general manager Cindy Chaimowitz said it was important to take action because many operators were facing closure. Some have also reported that their current trading conditions are the worst they have ever experienced. "Our price freeze is designed to provide immediate relief to these businesses, enabling them to keep their prices competitive and attract more diners." Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa...

The main banks have all trimmed their rates significantly since the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate earlier this month. Photo: RNZ Two-year mortgage rates have had the biggest falls, as banks move to cut what they charge borrowers. The main banks have all trimmed their rates significantly since the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate earlier this month. From a peak of about 7 percent late last year for two-year special home loan rates, according to Reserve Bank data, on Friday all of the major banks had two-year specials below 6 percent. The cheapest advertised rates were 5.89 percent for two years at ASB and BNZ. Six-month and one-year rates have fallen from a peak of about 7.3 percent in January to as low as 6.45 percent for a year at ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank and ANZ, and 6.85 p...

Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Inland Revenue is proposing simplification of the way GST is applied to managed funds, which will result in a drop in tax take of $22 million a year. It issued an exposure draft on Friday, outlining how it believes GST should be applied to managed funds' fees. At the moment, management of retirement schemes is exempt from GST, but fund managers have different approaches to the way they apply GST to non-KiwiSaver funds. Some charge GST on 10 percent of fees, because they calculated that the split of their work between GST-exempt arranging of financial services and financial advice, which incurs GST, was about that level. But some managers have shifted to applying GST to 100 percent of fees - this allows them to claim GST on 100 percent of their costs, too...