Business

Reserve Bank data shows while fixed-term rates have dropped significantly this year, floating rates have remained high. Photo: RNZ Kiwibank is cutting its floating home loan rates by 50 basis points, from 8.25 percent to 7.75 percent. The Reserve Bank will update the official cash rate tomorrow, and calls have been growing for a drop of 50 basis points, which would take the OCR to 4.75 percent. Its data shows that while fixed-term rates have dropped significantly this year, floating rates have remained high. Borrowers were taking out floating rates of 8.45 percent on average in September, compared to a peak of 8.6 percent. In comparison, the average one-year rate had dropped from a peak of 7.76 percent to 6.9 percent, and rates have fallen further since. Kiwibank chief customer officer ...

Trans Tasman Resources has advised the High Court it is abandoning its appeal. Photo: Biosphoto / Michel Rauch An offshore wind energy company has reiterated its proposal to install 70 turbines off the coast of Taranaki is not compatible with seabed mining. Trans-Tasman Resources' (TTR) plan to mine 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 30 years in the South Taranaki Bight has been included on the government's list of fast-track projects. In May, off-shore wind companies sent a briefing paper to government ministers likely to be involved in the fast-track process warning them the two activities were mutually exclusive. Taranaki Offshore Partnership wants to build an offshore wind farm capable of generating 1GW - enough to power more than 650,000 New Zealand homes - off the coas...

Photo: RNZ Further cuts to the Reserve Bank's official cash rate are not expected be enough to drive housing market prices up in the short-term. QV's September data indicates average national values had a month-on-month drop of 0.4 percent in September, and were down 1.6 percent in the September quarter compared with a 2 percent quarterly decline in QV's August index. The national average value rose just 0.3 percent to $901,920 on the same time last year. The rate of decline was seen in most of the major centres, with an average three-month rolling rate of reduction in Auckland (-1.7 percent), Christchurch (-0.8 percent), Hamilton (-1.2 percent), Dunedin (-0.8 percent), with a notable exception in Wellington, where home values dropped at twice the national average rate. The Wellington re...

A single person living alone got $519 in the pension per week. Photo: Yuri Arcurs / 123RF An 80-year-old woman who has agreed to pay her landlord an extra $100 a fortnight for the next 45 fortnights to clear her rent debt is one of a growing number of struggling pensioners, budgeting advisers say. The woman was before the Tenancy Tribunal recently, owing $4489 in rent arrears for a Clover Park home. Her landlord wanted to terminate the tenancy, but she argued she should repay the debt instead. She was paying $510 a week in rent and had been renting the property since October 2023. A single person living alone got $519 in the pension per week. She told the tribunal she was prone to being forgetful and had undergone two significant surgeries on her arms since the beginning of the tenancy,...

Mainfreight said profits have improved since last year. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Transport heavyweight Mainfreight says the first half of its financial year has beaten expectations with an 8.5 percent increase in revenue to $2.55 billion. However, underlying profit for the six months ended September was expected to be down 9.3 percent on the year earlier to $158.5 million. The investor update follows a big drop in Mainfreight's full-year profit for the year ended March, as global trade conditions returned to normal from the peak demand period during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company said the second half of the calendar year was better than 2023, with volumes and shipments up across all its divisions, and new customers having created opportunities for margin improvement. Geopolitic...

By Andrew Vonasch* of The cookies study was just one of ten experiments involving 4205 participants in the United States and Iran. Photo: AFP / Jean-Christophe Riou If you're offered a free cookie, you might say yes. But if you're paid to eat a free cookie, would your response be the same? In our [new research] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672241235687, twice as many people were willing to eat a cookie when they weren't offered payment compared with when they were. From a purely economic perspective, our findings reflect irrational decision making. Objectively, a cookie plus money is better than just a cookie. But people aren't purely economic. They're social animals with a tendency to look for hidden reasons behind other people's behaviours. In th...

The Financial Markets Authority has filed proceedings against eight firms for law breaches since 2018. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson More banks and insurers could face court proceedings and possible penalties for misleading and overcharging customers. The Financial Markets Authority has filed proceedings against eight firms for law breaches since it increased scrutiny of the sector in 2018. On Monday, AA Insurance was hit with a $6.2m penalty - the largest yet - for failing to apply discounts and no claims bonuses. Penalties have also been issued against insurers Cigna, AIA, the Medical Assurance Society and Vero; and banks, ANZ and Kiwibank; and total $17.46m. FMA head of enforcement Margot Gatland said it was working on possible legal action against in several other cas...

The number of households containing only one person increased by almost 120,000 in 10 years. Photo: RNZ Many New Zealanders plan to downsize from big family homes when they reach retirement - but it sometimes proves harder than expected. It's an issue that has been highlighted by the Retirement Commission, which said there was evidence people found it difficult to downsize due to a lack of appropriate properties. It said there needed to be new ways to stimulate the supply of "affordable and accessible accommodation options for older people". The commission said three-bedroom family homes or newer multi-level terraced housing would not cater for the changing demands of an older population. Data in the long-term insights briefing from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development shows th...

Economic conditions have remained chilly right across the country, Westpac says. File photo. Photo: Supplied / Elle McCammon Most of the country has been in the grip of an economic cold snap, but warmer conditions may be coming, according to a Westpac bank report. The roundup rates regional economies on a six temperature scale - between frosty and hot - but no region makes it out of the "cool" zone. "Economic conditions have remained chilly right across the country, with households and businesses in every region reporting ongoing challenges," Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said. Four of the 11 regions surveyed, the top of the South Island and the West Coast, Bay of Plenty, and Northland rated frosty - the lowest. Five regions, Auckland, Wellington, the lower North Island, Cant...

Photo: 123RF AA Insurance (AAI) has been ordered to pay a multimillion-dollar penalty for misleading customers and overcharging them to the tune of $11 million. The High Court imposed a near $6.2m penalty on the insurer for failing to apply multi-policy and membership discounts, as well as guaranteed no-claims bonuses. The Financial Markets Authority (FMA), which took action against the insurer, said the breaches primarily arose out of poor systems and processes. The High Court ruled that between 2015 and 2020, AA misled customers about its multi-policy discount offer and misrepresented that certain eligible customers would receive its guaranteed no-claims bonus for life. "While [AAI's] marketing material represented existing policyholders who added another policy would receive the disco...