The week in review

Friday 13th July 2001

AGRIBUSINESS

Indonesia lifted restrictions on this country's kiwifruit and other fresh-fruit imports. Indonesia imposed cold-storage quarantine treatment on fruit in 1996 after New Zealand authorities found Mediterranean fruit flies in Auckland. Kiwifruit exports to Indonesia totalled $400,000 in the year ending March 2001. Indonesia is this country's 13th-largest export market.

ECONOMY

Dairy exports of $2.2 billion, which accounted for 36% of the total annual increase, underpinned a 24% jump in total exports for the year to May. The updated value of merchandise exports for the year was $31.5 billion. The monthly trade surplus of $665 million was 21% of the value of exports while the deficit for the year at $186 million was $20 million higher than previously reported.

Consumers are cutting back on spending due to general price hikes. Retail sales in May declined 0.1% month on month, but this followed three months of 0.8-1% growth. The official figure of a 0.4% seasonally adjusted increase shows retailing is holding its own but if vehicle-related items such as dearer petrol are excluded, the volume decline shows consumer sentiment has turned for the worse.

The government released two Ministry of Economic Development discussion papers on copyright issues. One looks at the Copyright Act and the impact new technology and the internet. The other reviews performers' rights and how they can control what they produce over the internet. Submissions on both papers are due in October.

Foreign fee-paying students added about $700 million to the economy with $1 billion in foreign exchange earnings likely to be reached sooner than the 2005 target date. These students comprised 1.3% of the total school roll in 2000, an increase of 50%. At tertiary level the number in public institutions was 11,498, up from just 3945 in 1994. A further 20,000 are studying in private education establishments. Over 80 per cent of students are from Asia, with a third coming from China.

The government should reconsider the privatisation of Coal Corporation (Solid Energy), an International Energy Agency (IEA) review says. The suggestion comes in view of recent improvements in international coal prices and a generally flat outlook expected for growth in long-term coal prices.

MEDIA

Wellington's alternative weekly newspaper, City Voice, has closed after eight years of struggling to become viable. Founded by journalist Simon Collins, now back at the New Zealand Herald, the newspaper was run as a co-operative. Publisher Federico Monsalve said the Wellington advertising market wasn't reacting as expected. Meanwhile, one of the country's few opinion magazines, The Best Underground Press - Critical Review, edited and published by Agnes-Mary Brooke, will become an online publication only.

TECHNOLOGY

The IT market is expected to grow about 4% each year from $4.6 billion in 2000 to $5.6 billion in 2005, a report by market analyst IDC NZ said. New Zealand was a well-developed market in which IT spending on software and services is expected to reach 56% by 2005.

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