What happened Tuesday

Economy / news

A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Tuesday; many more rate changes lower, test rates fall too, REINZ sales volumes lower, truckometer lacks momentum, tractor sales low, swaps soft, NZD stable, & more

15th Oct 24, 4:00pm by David Chaston

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).

MORTGAGE/LOAN RATE CHANGES
BNZ has cut most fixed rates, especially their short 6 months and 1 year fixed rates. Kiwibank has also trimmed some rates. Heartland Bank has cut most of its fixed rates. More here. All rates are here.

TEST RATES FALLING
Many banks are now reducing their mortgage affordability test rates, with Kiwibank as low as 8% now. An industry review is here..

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank has cut term deposit rates (and by more than their home loan rate cuts). TSB has cut TD rates too. All updated rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

A DIFFICULT START
September national REINZ data shows that the housing market had a difficult start to spring with a significant drop in sales volumes. Among the sales that did happen, prices held their own.

'NOT A BOUNCY SPRING'
ANZ's Truckometer monitoring of road transport activity is not giving many encouraging signals. Both the light traffic index, and the heavy traffic index were lower in September than August.

NZX EQUITY MARKET UPDATE
Check out our quick update of how the NZX is faring today, as at 3pm. Vista and Tourism Holding share the spotlight. Serko and a2 Milk move lower.

TRACTOR SALES WEAK
September is usually the peak month for tractor sales - and it was again this year. But at 234 new units sold/registered, that is unusually low for a September. In fact you have to go back to 2007, seventeen years ago, to find a weaker September. In most years more than 400 units are sold in September.

EMERGE RAISES $12 MILLION
Fintech Emerge says it has raised $12 million in a second investment round led by Altered Capital. Other investors include Icehouse Ventures, K1W1, NZ Fintech Fund and US VC Hard Yaka. Money raised will be used for marketing, sales, and product hires plus "the ramp up of the start-up’s go-to-market strategy." Emerge founders Jamie Jermain and Jovan Pavlicevic describe the business as "a digital-first banking alternative."

ANOTHER PAYMENTS OPTION ENTERS LOCAL MARKET
British fintech Edbury, one of the world’s fastest-growing global fintechs, has opened an office in Auckland. They specialise in international payments and collections, offer foreign exchange in some 130 currencies, cash management strategy, and foreign exchange risk management for SMEs. Their claim is that they offer "... the sophisticated products and services that banks typically reserve for their biggest clients, accessible to SMEs."

END OF THE LINE
Stats NZ said it will stop producing quarterly property transfer statistics. Property transfer statistics: June 2024 quarter is the final release in the series.

WE TRAIN THEM, THE AUSSIES TO POACH THEM
Australia said it is changing its GP accreditation rules so it can raid doctors specifically from those who who are qualified in Ireland, New Zealand and Britain.

SWAP RATES EASE
Wholesale swap rates are probably a marginally lower today. Our chart below will record the final positions. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 4.65%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is down -3 bps at 4.28%. The China 10 year bond rate is little-changed at 2.16%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is down -5 bps from this time yesterday at 4.48%. And the earlier RBNZ fix was at 4.45% and up an insignificant +1 bps from yesterday. The UST 10yr yield is now at 4.09% and dipping -1 bp bps from yesterday. Their 2yr is still at 3.95%, so that curve is now positive by +14 bps.

EQUITIES MIXED
The NZX50 is now up +0.2% in late Tuesday trade after a turn up in the afternoon. The ASX200 is up +0.8% in afternoon trade. Tokyo is up +1.1% at its Tuesday open. Hong Kong is down another -0.6% at its open. Shanghai started -0.7% lower at its open. Singapore is trading up +0.7% at its open. Wall Street ended ist Monday session up +0.8% on the S&P500.

OIL DOWN
The oil price is down -US$3 from this time yesterday at just under US$71.50/bbl in the US, and just over US$75/bbl for the international Brent price.

CARBON PRICE BACK UP
The carbon price rose marginally today to $62.75/NZU after yesterday's small dip to $62/NZU. See our new daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD FIRMISH
In early Asian trade, gold is up +US$3 from this time yesterday, now at US$2649/oz.

NZD HOLDS
The Kiwi dollar is unchanged from this time yesterday at 60.9 USc. Against the Aussie we are still at 90.5 AUc. And against the euro we are still at 55.8 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is also unchanged at 69.3 from this time yesterday.

BITCOIN RISES STRONGLY
The bitcoin price is up a strong +5.3% from this time yesterday, now at US$65,874. Volatility of the past 24 hours has been high at just on +/- 3.2%.

Daily exchange rates

Select chart tabs

Source: RBNZ

Source: CoinDesk

Daily swap rates

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Source: NZFMA

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

Keep abreast of upcoming events by following our Economic Calendar here ».

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82 Comments

by bw | 15th Oct 24, 4:11pm 1728961890

"The China 10 year bond rate is little-changed at 2.16%."

"China already has more than enough houses, roads, railways, bridges and factories to last a century for a falling population. Beijing is well aware of this and does not want to make the debt burden associated with wasteful investment any worse, lest it kill off productivity as well. After two decades of debt-charged growth, the Chinese economy is painted into a corner....China can only reduce interest rates at the same pace that the US Federal Reserve does, or its currency will collapse..."

https://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/world-on-edge-as-chinese-yaun-enters-…

by ChrisOfNoFame | 15th Oct 24, 5:45pm 1728967500

"China already has more than enough houses, roads, railways, bridges and factories to last a century for a falling population. "

That's a huge statement. And IMO almost certainly wrong as it demonstrates an ignorance of the city / countryside divide.

by MLSmith | 15th Oct 24, 8:02pm 1728975743

Not knowing the numbers…but is it not the fact they have a very bad ratio of ‘young workers’ to oldies…this points to the above statement holding some truth

by blobbles | 15th Oct 24, 11:11pm 1728987076

Baloney, they are on the forefront of technology and have a huge amount of capability to automate their factories which will see growth continue. Unless the government keeps doing stupid stuff.

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 4:12pm 1728961945

Wellington’s City to Sea Bridge to be demolished

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350451875/wellingtons-city-sea-bridge-be-demolished

Good to see that this ugly eyesore is going to be demolished however the usual egotistical nonsense from the Wellington council: "the bridge is a unique structure that many Wellingtonian’s care about and enjoy," and "two options for the bridge’s future; either replacing it with a new pedestrian crossing, or a pedestrian crossing with a new, smaller bridge at two different points across Jervois Quay." Someone also thought it a good idea "that $65 million was allocated to investigate options for the bridge and the former Capital E building and basement. This included both remedial strengthening work and demolition.”

There's ALREADY a perfectly useable pedestrian overpass in basic concrete AND a traffic light pedestrian crossing - both less than 100 meters away which have been been there for many years.

Hopefully Central Govt finally step in & stop this vanity project nonsense.

by AN Other | 15th Oct 24, 4:21pm 1728962478

It reported that $65 million was allocated to investigate options for the bridge and the former Capital E building and basement. This included both remedial strengthening work and demolition.

That is an offensively large amount of money to spend on investigations. Someone needs to be stripped of their responsibilities and then summarily sacked for misuse of public funds.

by Foxglove. | 15th Oct 24, 4:45pm 1728963920

The public purse is now well established as an easy target for pillaging by those with authority but not one iota of responsibility for squandering it on spendthrift projects of neither necessity nor substance.What a load of mealy mouthed piffle “many Wellingtons care about and enjoy.” Where then is the verb use and as well, just quantify “many” and then how many of the many might prefer that the spending be allocated instead to the basic services substantially neglected by the same dreamers.

by HouseMouse | 15th Oct 24, 4:30pm 1728963004

Agree, that’s farcical and shameful

by HodlKiwi | 15th Oct 24, 5:00pm 1728964830

Opens the door to add yet another set of controlled pedestrian crossing points across a stretch of road that already has plenty

by solardb | 15th Oct 24, 6:46pm 1728971206

Can't see how demolition is less disruptive than remedial work . How hard is it to put a few piles and supports in?

by DaveB1978 | 15th Oct 24, 6:53pm 1728971630

It costs $8k a step in Auckland

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/527975/auckland-council-spends-263k…

so I imagine $8m each plus a few billion in other expenses

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 6:54pm 1728971692

Apparently $65M "hard" - & TV news tonight quoted $100M. Clearly WCC don't have a clue (surprise)

by Foxglove. | 15th Oct 24, 7:21pm 1728973318

Oh imagine after all it’s just a matter of a decimal point here or there between friends which of course sits admirably with those who are pointless.

by Houses Overpriced | 15th Oct 24, 4:19pm 1728962394

All economic indicators are declining, so is the housing market

by ChrisOfNoFame | 15th Oct 24, 5:46pm 1728967580

Ah. Being "back on track" never felt so good, ay?

by blobbles | 15th Oct 24, 11:13pm 1728987225

We voted in austerity and pretend we didn't. It will continue to decline until the government clicks that its spending should be counter cyclical, not pro cyclical.

by Advisor | 15th Oct 24, 4:22pm 1728962576

WE TRAIN THEM, THE AUSSIES TO POACH THEM

Are we training them though? More than 40 percent registering with Medical Council NZ each year are trained overseas.

The headline sounds better than "Someone else trains them, we poach them and then the Aussies poaches them from us".

by HouseMouse | 15th Oct 24, 4:32pm 1728963154

And you could add to the end of it ‘because NZ has failed in both its housing and healthcare policy settings’

rather than bashing Aussies, look in the mirror

by mfd | 15th Oct 24, 5:46pm 1728967560

Easy to see why people make the switch. In my technical specialty, the NZ salary scale tops out at about $170k. In New South Wales, the senior scale starts at over $200k and runs to about $260k AUD. Add higher super contributions and other incentives on top of that.

by Silvi | 15th Oct 24, 5:07pm 1728965249

Mmmm. Glorious to be such an expert.

You are wrong.

I suggest you to go and look at the requirement to be met by these Nurses before stating unequivocally your opinion.

by Advisor | 15th Oct 24, 5:11pm 1728965479

I suggest you read the article before posting your comment.

The trainees in question are doctors, not nurses.

by Juzz | 15th Oct 24, 4:23pm 1728962604

A wee bit off topic but...

Recently my rates in Lower hutt went up 21.8%, Genesis gas just went up 18.5%, my insurance up 20%.

How can anyone say inflation is under control? I get the feeling OCR may come down this year but possibly straight back up next year.

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 4:40pm 1728963630

As I'm sure you know, the CPI has a weighted basket of goods. Not everyone lives in Lower Hutt (our rates went up 7% in Auckland), not everyone uses gas (we don't), and not everyone has insurance (a lot of renters may not or only have contents). We all buy food (up only 1.2%) and fuel (down a lot).

by HouseMouse | 15th Oct 24, 4:47pm 1728964027

And rents flat

by IT GUY | 15th Oct 24, 5:04pm 1728965046

Most insurance underwriters look offshore and costs have nothing to do with NZ OCR

by Juzz | 15th Oct 24, 5:25pm 1728966348

Yeh I get that, maybe just feeling frustrated with these big increases recently. We'll be alright but I wonder how much these increases hurt for those who are running a tighter budget than us. I'd like to know the justification they have for ~20% increases

by agnostium | 15th Oct 24, 8:27pm 1728977228

Recently my rates in Lower hutt went up 21.8% = Boomer generation consistently voting for lower rates over infrastructure maintenance plus climate change insurance costs plus National Government cutting their share of Local Government running costs (Transport and 3 Waters)

Genesis gas just went up 18.5% = resource depletion = higher costs going forward

my insurance up 20% = Climate Change to cover local weather events and global reinsurance

by vman | 15th Oct 24, 7:23pm 1728973420

So food (cyclone affected supply) & fuel (offshore) are down...sounds like we haven't actually achieved much really, luck & the weather.

by Zwifter | 15th Oct 24, 5:38pm 1728967117

If I were you I would investigate the difference in price between just house and house and contents. Insuring your contents was half the cost and lets be honest its generally not worth insuring relative to the cost of the house. Potentially you can halve your insurance cost.

by Juzz | 15th Oct 24, 6:03pm 1728968629

The contents insurance isn't much at all, $14 fortnightly. The other insurances stack up to $360 fortnightly though. Our household costs with 5 kids is now averaged at $6700 per fortnight.

by J.C. | 15th Oct 24, 4:29pm 1728962970

Suspect if this story were in Granny, you would see gulps and shudders across the water coolers and REA offices of the nation.

China is enforcing a tax on overseas investment gains for the ultra-rich, targeting individuals with significant offshore assets.

Some wealthy individuals in major Chinese cities were told in recent months to conduct self-assessments or summoned by tax authorities for meetings to evaluate potential payments, including those in arrears from past years, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

The individuals contacted are facing up to 20% levies on investment gains, and some are also subject to penalties on overdue payments, said the people, adding that the final amount is negotiable.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-15/china-moves-to-tax-t…

by Advisor | 15th Oct 24, 4:57pm 1728964670

Yikes, 20% levies.

Could it potentially lead to wealthy Chinese investors offloading property holdings in Sydney, London, Vancouver, etc.?

Jacinda insulated our property market from such capital shocks.

by J.C. | 15th Oct 24, 5:05pm 1728965102

Jacinda insulated our property market from such capital shocks.

How? This may have been her defining moment--protecting the Ponzi from the tentacles of the CCP--but nobody's aware of it.

If you're wrong, there might be a buck to be made by dobbing in the Chinese-looking people down the road.

by 26@Main | 15th Oct 24, 4:38pm 1728963485

Off topic also but owners of Area 41 Italian restaurant in New Plymouth not only charged one migrant worker $16k for a job but also charged him an hourly rate because they said the minimum wage was too high!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350451547/restaurant-owners-fined-60000-insidious-offending-against-migrant-workers

by dumbthoughts | 15th Oct 24, 4:51pm 1728964306

$60k fine for basically enslaving people seems to be a very modest punishment indeed.

Considering all this imported labour rorting has the effect of putting downwards pressure on wages (for already low wage industries where - if anything - we need wages to rise) the punishment should be much tougher.

E.g. why are the owners' assets not seized and sold off as proceeds of crime? If the only way your shitehouse restaurant can operate is by running a visa scam shop and garnishing wages, then presumably it's an illegitimate enterprise at the fundamental level.

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 4:58pm 1728964688

You could say its a massive punishment, compared to someone who is on their 20th violent assault and gets a week of community service or similar.

by dumbthoughts | 15th Oct 24, 5:03pm 1728964994

Don't necessarily disagree with you!

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 5:00pm 1728964833

I agree with you however I'm not a lawyer (& happy to be corrected on this take) - my understanding is that ERA offences are not criminal acts.

Convictions for eg. fraud might have opened the opportunity for the proceeds of crime recovery.

by dumbthoughts | 15th Oct 24, 5:02pm 1728964933

Yes I suspect you are probably right (I'm not a lawyer either). My comment was more along the lines of maybe we need to change the law to treat this type of behaviour as criminal enterprise.

by 26@Main | 15th Oct 24, 5:47pm 1728967621

Agree, perhaps it could also be grounds for deportation if those who exploit migrant workers (or any workers for that matter) weren't born here as this would act as a deterrent, these cases are not uncommon unfortunately.

by agnostium | 15th Oct 24, 8:32pm 1728977571

Why not go back further? Of you are a white collar criminal but your family can't trace it's roots to the original wakas maybe you also get deported.

by Murray Falconer | 15th Oct 24, 6:24pm 1728969842

Welcome to just one of the reasons I've been wanting to slow/stop immigration for 25 years. Really, we have to stop private people selling permanent residence as this will always create the demand.

Skills shortage? Fine, then let them bring in a worker for 12mths by paying a 50k fee to INZ. Still can't train or hire someone who lives here to do the job after 12mths? Fine, pay another 50k to have them stay another 12mths.

by dumbthoughts | 15th Oct 24, 6:45pm 1728971110

I tend to agree with this approach. If you want to 'import a worker' (outside of a very narrow, defined range of skill sets e.g. healthcare) then you need to pay a tax to do so. If the skill shortage is that critical you'll find a way to pay.

Of course this doesn't necessarily fix the problem of migrant exploitation (presumably many devious employers - e.g. your restaurant owners above - would then charge the employee for the tax).

In this case, we need far stricter rules against employers who exploit migrant labour. E.g. deportation if not from NZ, seizure and sale of business and personal assets, forbidden from running companies etc.

To be honest, as much as it sounds like 'victim blaming' there probably also needs to be penalties for those who arrive knowing they will break the rules (with a view to do so for as long as it takes to get PR). E.g. if you're caught doing this, you're also gone from NZ.

by Murray Falconer | 15th Oct 24, 11:43pm 1728989019

Nothings perfect, but it would be a start. We've been thinking we're popular just because we are prepared to give away permanent residence - we're deluded and take for granted what we have.

What really annoys me is so much of the benefits go to recent arrivals that know how the system 'works' running lame education offerings etc (all to just get in the door and work under the table or legally thanks John Key). All the while proper businesses close as they cannot compete - are immigrants really better at running liquor stores, or is store manager on the skills shortage list and therefore worth paying for?

Like the Aussies did with boat people, the boats stopped when they knew they weren't going to be allowed to stay on Aussie soil. This is why permanent residence has to be off the table. Once it is, then the exploitation will stop as employers will no longer be able to hold the threat of losing it over them (we tend to only hear about it once the 'arrangement' has collapsed and the employee is desperate so rolls the dice going to authorities). Still doesn't stop the $50k for marriage deal but at least that's one per 7 years instead of 27 per 3 b/r house...

by IT GUY | 15th Oct 24, 5:23pm 1728966194

It feels like WGTN council is about to be dealt to…., Is that both hands Dr?

by dumbthoughts | 15th Oct 24, 5:25pm 1728966355

Why intervene? There seems to be something in the water that makes the locals froth for largesse, incompetence and massive rates increases. Could the average Wellington ratepayer actually survive if they opened a rates bill and it wasn't up by double digits? It's the essence of life up there it seems.

My in-laws are a great example. Both of solid Two Ticks Blue, mid-Canterbury origin. When living in Chch it was unending dinner table talk about the incompetence of the council, the need to avoid rates rises, the need to cut costs, all the usual talkback talking points.

18 months up in Wellington for his and hers new jobs, and you'd think Tory Whanau was the second coming the way they carry on. I think my father in law was more excited at his latest rates bill than he was at his daughter's wedding (then again, she did marry me ...)

I always enjoy my visits for work and pleasure (apart from the awful weather and occasionally wishing I had an AK47 down my trousers when going through the CBD at night, or during the day, or any time these days) but seeing as the current situation is presumably what everybody wants and keeps voting for, why change?

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 5:39pm 1728967177

"...the current situation..." is what the ratepayers who didn't vote deserve by leaving the electoral outcome decided by people who had none of their their own skin in the game (eg student renters).

by agnostium | 15th Oct 24, 8:35pm 1728977737

Can we also revoke the coalition's right to govern on this basis or is it only fair if National take power. Very Trumpian kiwikidz, at least you are consistently undemocratic.

by solardb | 15th Oct 24, 9:32pm 1728981132

Glad I'm not the only one to see the irony of a govt that insists it has a mandate for everything it does, talking about intervening with a democratically elected council.

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 6:22pm 1728969771

I haven’t followed it much because it seemed like a media beat up, but what are the actual problems? I know the water is leaking, but you couldn’t blame that fully on the current lot as much as you can’t blame the current recession fully on National. And a couple of businesses didn’t like roadworks. Anything else?

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 6:29pm 1728970196

I'm pretty sure that you've seen this before...

Remember these when the Wellington City Council claims it had no choice but to increase rates 20%

$593 million on social housing

$400 million for a sludge minimisation facility at Moa Point

$330 million on rebuilding the town hall so we have another music venue

$240 million on Civic Square

$236 million on food recycling

$189 million on Te Matapihi library

$180 million on the Takina convention centre

$160 million on cycleways

$139 million on removing cars and redeveloping the Golden Mile

$55 million to “upgrade” Thorndon Quay

$42 million on renovating St James Theatre

$32 million to Reading Cinemas (attempted but failed)

$13 million on a carpark building

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/09/remember_these_when_the_wellington_city_council_claims_it_had_no_choice_but_to_increase_rates_20.html

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 6:53pm 1728971595

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 6:52pm 1728971532

Sounds like they have been investing in a better city. They managed to do all that with similar rates rises to other cities, isn’t that a good thing?

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 7:03pm 1728972206

Other peoples money misspent by people elected by those without their own skin in the game.

I suggest that you visit Wgtn & confirm your opinion on the " better city". Or not.

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 7:09pm 1728972564

Last time I was there I thought it was losing ground to Auckland having previously been a much better city, so I suspect some investment was needed. I’m sure we have different views on what makes a good city, but at the end of the day it’s the voters who decide. National need a better reason to take over than just because it’s woke.

by IT GUY | 15th Oct 24, 7:18pm 1728973086

not woke its broke

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 7:22pm 1728973330

Ok, so that is the issue? Like I say I haven’t been keeping up with it. More broke than the other councils?

by IT GUY | 15th Oct 24, 8:09pm 1728976161

way behind on water infrastructure , rail is a mess (some track issues some wgtn transport,

Wayne Brown can sell shares and get a 10 year plan in place, WGTN seem to be able to catch covid and get pissed

by agnostium | 15th Oct 24, 8:39pm 1728977990

And you want Simeon to take over? The guy that proposed a new tunnel under the whole city with no BCR, that was rejected by the Let's Get Welly Moving project (hardly an organisation known for it's frugality) that will make Auckland CRL costs seem cheap as chips.

by Te Kooti | 15th Oct 24, 6:29pm 1728970175

Wellington is your case study of when woke & green ideology is allowed to run unchecked in a city. From what I can see, it's essentially a "Matriarchy", a sandbox of largely green, liberal women allowed to implement their progressive agendas without attention to the laws of physics, economics and engineering.

Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong but from where I sit, it needs the bat wings to light up the Majestic centre pdq.

by dumbthoughts | 15th Oct 24, 6:47pm 1728971278

The voters there love it. They'd probably vote for 100% of their incomes going on rates before ever conceding that maybe the council needs a rethink. Or they are too apathetic to care, in which case presumably they must be happy enough with the status quo.

Cool city, see it while it's still standing and somewhat habitable I guess?

by solardb | 15th Oct 24, 6:53pm 1728971629

It seems like a bit of a beat up .

I did some diving into the popular bakery closing ," because of the cycleways".

Well, what a shit location for a bakery. The reason they are suffering is because all their customers have to drive there. in a city where a good portion of the population take public transport , or can walk / cycle to work.

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 7:06pm 1728972368

"I did some diving..." ok

it's hard to understand how the business lasted 30 years there /sarc

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bordeaux-bakery-closing-all-three-of-its-….

by JimboJones | 15th Oct 24, 7:19pm 1728973184

As cities grow businesses need to adapt. Lots of businesses thrive from the removal of cars, this is obviously one that doesn’t.

by IT GUY | 15th Oct 24, 8:10pm 1728976245

Cities thrive from people, WGTN so popular no one goes there anymore.

by Baywatch | 15th Oct 24, 8:15pm 1728976507

Love Wellington...

by 26@Main | 15th Oct 24, 7:57pm 1728975423

Why are all three locations closing though? The current owner/s bought the business 6 years ago and also notes work from home, public sector cuts and cost of living as challenging to the business as well.

by Te Kooti | 15th Oct 24, 8:29pm 1728977350

Have any of you been to Wellington recently? It used to be such a vibrant buzzy place, now it feels absolutely munted. I drove along Thorndon Quay, no parking whatsoever on road. All the business owners complaining about revenue diving, what would they know eh.

by agnostium | 15th Oct 24, 8:42pm 1728978177

When you sack a significant proportion of the workforce, what do you expect?

And no-one is there but there is no parking? Who is taking up the parking? Ghost cars? (And no it isn't cycleways, Wellington tracks parking supply and the overall numbers are not down significantly).

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 9:08pm 1728979696

Facts not fantasies.

There's currently still more public servants employed than June 2023 before Labour stacked their acolytes ahead of the election.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/530400/two-thousand-jobs-lost-from-…

Labour increased the public service by ~18000 / 40% in 6 years - with no significant improvement in services = no reason reducing them should reduce services.

Approx half of Wellington's carparks are being removed & half aren't being used because the council has massively increased the charges

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/131564199/call-fo…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington-top-stories/130770186/…

by IT GUY | 15th Oct 24, 9:53pm 1728982433

But most now WFH with no stats as to how many days in office.... I am not going to comment on prod but they are not buying coffee and scones on the way in, or beers and chips on Friday after work, WFH has killed CBD BUT been great for suburbs

by Te Kooti | 15th Oct 24, 10:18pm 1728983897

If nothing else, it shows that it takes plenty of vision and good and energetic civic leaders to bring a city to life.

by agnostium | 15th Oct 24, 10:35pm 1728984906

OK let's put aside the workers being sacked as I can't be bothered to argue.

You said there were no parking spaces available. The article you linked said that only 54% were being used. What is it? You can't find parking or you can find oodles of parking but you don't want to pay and expect ratepayers to pay your parking for you instead because ....

And I can't find the source of your claim that 50% of parking spaces in Wellington are being removed (can't open the stuff article). Can you send me the link please? I work in this area and a 50% reduction in car park spaces in the city centre is not even remotely correct.

by kiwikidsnz | 16th Oct 24, 8:03am 1729019026

From the 1st Stuff link I provided above:

"About 1200 on-street parks are being removed as part of a city-wide cycleway rollout, ..."

From the 2nd Stuff link I provided above:

"More than half of the central city’s 3000 on-street car parks are likely to be removed through projects to encourage active transport, including the pedestrianisation of the Golden Mile and the roll-out of the Paneke Pōneke cycleway network."

A suspicion suggests that the rabidly anti car council have a cunning plan; more than doubling the parking charges, added in weekend & overnight charging - resulting in less utilisation thereby enabling them to halve parking while maintaining as much parking income as possible.

by blobbles | 15th Oct 24, 11:28pm 1728988082

Bordeaux was great about 15 years ago, then the food went downhill quite fast and has been getting worse and worse.

You will notice La Cloche, a real French bakery, has not closed. It has locations in similar places, further along Hutt Road in a worse location than Bordeaux with a cycleway outside it... and its absolutely humming. There is another location directly across Featherston St from the empty Bordeaux bakery.

When will they admit they make shit food and the competition is doing far better? They also decided to go on an anti cycleway campaign a few years ago, instead of installing bike racks outside their building. Every cyclist that I know that used to go there for coffees, stopped going and switched mainly to La Cloche who put bike racks outside.

Don't embrace change, alienate your customers, treat your staff like garbage and make worse and worse products - that's a good combination to make any business fail.

by HouseMouse | 15th Oct 24, 6:36pm 1728970561

Sometimes it takes an outsider outside of the echo chamber to show you how bad things actually are. I sense that many here still think our economy is experiencing a soft landing.

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2024/10/deep-rate-cuts-incoming-as-rec…

by Independent_Observer | 15th Oct 24, 9:44pm 1728981898

Yip good charts in the link. My personal view is it’s going to get worse the next 12-18 months before we see any sign of a recovery.

by IT GUY | 15th Oct 24, 10:11pm 1728983505

Yep but that is probably a best case we could all lose a decade here due to China and global factors limiting our bounce back.

You cannot compare with GFC as China did massive QE in sync with the world, now the USA is using the economy as an economic weapon.

It wants a weak China, our biggest trading partner.

by kiwikidsnz | 15th Oct 24, 7:02pm 1728972144

In September 1,510,000 Australians were unemployed (9.5% of the workforce, up 0.4%), an increase of 87,000 from August. The increase was driven by more people looking for full-time work, up 31,000 to 583,000, and more people looking for part-time work, up 56,000 to 927,000.

Overall unemployment and under-employment was virtually unchanged at 18.7% in September:

In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.45 million Australians (9.2% of the workforce) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work, down 43,000 from August. In total 2.96 million Australians (18.7% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in September.

https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9698-australian-unemployment-estimat…

by Peter M | 15th Oct 24, 7:11pm 1728972679

"Kiwibank has cut term deposit rates (and by more than their home loan rate cuts)". Savers are required to keep the housing ponzi going!!!

by TronMVP | 15th Oct 24, 9:36pm 1728981400

Can you explain your thinking processes there?

by Independent_Observer | 15th Oct 24, 9:45pm 1728981946

Incentives.