May 2004
Monthly Archive
Mon 31 May 2004
Television advertising revenue increased by 10.8 per cent ($12.3 million) to $126.5 million for the three months to 31 March 2004 compared to $114.2 million for the same period in 2003.
The NZTBC’s Executive Director, Bruce Wallace said, “Continuing improvements in revenues are encouraging and show excellent support from advertisers for television. Nielsen Media Research reported category growth in retail, food, cosmetics, household products and insurance.” He said this reflected both the highly competitive economy and the level of consumer demand.
Wallace reported that television companies were forecasting ongoing solid growth for the rest of the year despite warnings from economists of a slowing in economic growth.
The returns are from CanWest New Zealand, Prime Television New Zealand, Television New Zealand and SKY Network Television.
Mon 31 May 2004
Consents were issued for 2,486 new dwelling units in April 2004, according to Statistics New Zealand. This is up 254 units or 11 percent, compared with April 2003.
Consents for 588 new apartment units were issued in April 2004, compared with 548 in March 2004, and 559 in February 2004.
Consents for 31,677 new dwelling units were issued in the year ended April 2004, up 12 percent compared with the year ended April 2003. The total number of new dwelling units for the year ended April 2004 is the largest total recorded for an April year since 1976.
Twelve out of 16 regions recorded more new dwelling units in April 2004, compared with April 2003. Auckland (up 197 units) recorded the largest increase when comparing the two April months, followed by Canterbury (up 76 units) and Northland (up 56 units). The Wellington region (down 153 units) recorded the largest decrease when comparing the two April months.
The total value of consents issued for non-residential buildings was $239 million in April 2004. Consents issued for shops, restaurants and taverns were worth $57 million (24 percent) of the total in April 2004. This was followed by consents issued for offices and administration buildings worth $35 million (15 percent), education buildings worth $27 million (11 percent), and storage buildings worth $24 million (10 percent).
The total value of consents issued for all buildings was $759 million in April 2004, following totals of $996 million in March 2004, and $773 million in February 2004. For the year ended April 2004, the total value of consents for all buildings was $9,734 million, up $1,581 million (19 percent) when compared with the year ended April 2003
Fri 28 May 2004
Input prices in the Producers Price Index (PPI) fell 0.5 percent and output prices fell 0.1 percent in the March 2004 quarter, according to latest figures from Statistics New Zealand.
The most significant downward contribution to the PPI inputs index in the March 2004 quarter came from an 11.1 percent fall in the electricity generation and supply index, reflecting lower bulk electricity prices due to higher hydro lake levels. Other significant downward contributions came from the meat and meat product manufacturing index (down 8.4 percent), and the index for textile and apparel manufacturing (down 2.6 percent). These downward movements were partly offset by rises in the construction index (up 1.4 percent), the basic metal manufacturing index (up 5.8 percent), and the public administration and defence index (up 0.9 percent).
In the PPI outputs index, the most significant downward contribution came from the electricity generation and supply index, which fell 8.0 percent on the back of lower wholesale electricity prices. Other downward contributions came from the livestock and cropping farming index (down 7.0 percent), and the wholesale trade index (down 0.6 percent). In the March 2004 quarter, these movements were partly offset by rises in the construction index (up 2.0 percent), the index for residential property rents (up 1.4 percent) and the dairy product manufacturing index (up 1.7 percent).
Between the March 2003 and March 2004 quarters, the PPI inputs index recorded a decrease of 0.6 percent, while the PPI outputs index recorded a 0.9 percent increase over the same time period.
Fri 28 May 2004
The sheep industry recorded only modest growth, according to the 2003 Agriculture Production Survey released today by Statistics New Zealand. At 30 June 2003, there were 39.7 million sheep in New Zealand, up from 39.6 million recorded the previous year.
The growth in this period can be partly attributed to dry weather conditions, especially in the northern regions of the South Island and southern regions of the North Island.
Although the survey results show that flocks were reduced in a number of regions, sheep numbers in the Canterbury region increased by 212,000 at 30 June 2003, to reach 8.0 million or 20 percent of the national flock. The Gisborne region also experienced strong growth over this period, with an increase of 210,000 sheep. The most significant losses were in the Waikato and Otago regions, where decreases were recorded of 7 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Despite total sheep numbers showing only slow growth, the number of lambs marked or tailed increased by 2 percent to 33.4 million during the year, up from 32.6 million in the 2002 Agricultural Production Census.
Beef cattle numbered 4.6 million at 30 June 2003, an increase of 3 percent on the 4.5 million reported the previous year. In the Canterbury region, beef cattle numbers grew by 10 percent to 554,000, and the Gisborne region recorded a 13 percent increase, to 350,000. The Manawatu-Wanganui and Taranaki regions, which were affected by droughts, recorded decreases of 2 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
Survey results show that New Zealand’s dairy cattle numbers remained steady over the period, at 5.1 million. The Waikato region, which has one-third of the national dairy herd, recorded a 1 percent increase since June 2002 to reach 1.7 million dairy cattle.
The area of land planted in wine grapes continued to show strong growth, with 19,650 hectares planted in wine grapes at 30 June 2003, an increase of 2,350 hectares or 14 percent. Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay, the two largest grape-growing regions, recorded increases of 21 percent (to 9,070 hectares) and 11 percent (to 4,270 hectares), respectively.
Kiwifruit plantings, which have remained relatively constant over the last nine years, totalled 12,360 hectares at 30 June 2003. Bay of Plenty region accounted for 74 percent of New Zealand’s total planted area, with plantings of 9,150 hectares.
The 12,150 hectares planted in apples at 30 June 2003 was up 4 percent on the previous year. Hawke’s Bay region experienced 8 percent growth to 6,400 hectares, and was the largest apple-growing region, with 53 percent of New Zealand’s total planted area.
The new area planted in production forest for the year ended 31 December 2002 was 19,600 hectares, a fall of 42 percent or 14,100 hectares since December 2001. The largest decrease was in the Gisborne region, which recorded a 50 percent reduction in new forest plantings.
The 2003 Agricultural Production Survey, a sample survey, is part of a programme of agricultural production statistics produced in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Fri 28 May 2004
New Zealand house prices have now increased for 11 consecutive quarters, provisional figures for the quarter ending March 2004 released by Quotable Value (QV) today reveal.
The overall NZ QV House Price Index (QV HPI) shows an increase of 22% for the year ending March 2004. This annual growth compares favourably with the substantial growth of nearly 24% for the year ended December 2003, says Blue Hancock of QV Valuations.
Only Upper Hutt City and Papakura’s House Price Index increased more than last quarter. All other areas showed a slower rate of increase, indicating some moderation is returning to the market, said Mr. Hancock. The national median sale price for the quarter was $225,000. “The House Price Index is a better indicator of change in property values, as median sales prices can be impacted by sales activity in specific property types”, Mr. Hancock said.
Areas to achieve annual growth rates in excess of 20% for the year ended March 2004 include Invercargill 34.9%, Napier 31%, Christchurch 30.7%, Dunedin 29.6%, Tauranga 27.9%, Nelson 26.5%, and Waitakere 23.1%.
Although Auckland City shows an annual growth of 19%, this figure is not final, as unfortunately not all sales have been received for Auckland City for the March 2004 quarter.
“The highest quarterly growth of 6.1% was recorded in Papakura, which indicates a ‘ripple effect’ in Auckland’s house price growth,” Mr Hancock said. “The ‘ripple effect’ is the impact of strong house price growth reaching the outer suburbs of a city as many investors and first home buyers compete to purchase the cheaper properties available in those locations compared to other parts of the city.”
This is also demonstrated by the higher value quarterly growth in Porirua (4.1%) and Lower Hutt City (3.5%), when compared with Wellington City (2.6%).
The next quarter is expected to still show increases in house values but with the rate of increase beginning to reduce, Mr Hancock said.
“Important factors like the continued downward trend in net migration, and decreasing affordability due to high house price-to-income ratios could continue to reduce buyer demand in the short term.”
Thu 27 May 2004
The Commerce Commission has cleared Visy Industrial Plastics (NZ) Limited to acquire the plastic packaging businesses and assets of ACI Operations NZ Limited.
Visy and its associated entities manufacture, distribute and supply various polyethylene containers including pails and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage containers.
Visy’s application related to the acquisition of ACI’s business of manufacturing, distributing and supplying PET beverage and food containers; plastic carbonated soft drink, water, food and hot-fill closures; pails; and crates.
Chair Paula Rebstock said that the Commission was satisfied that the proposed acquisition would not have, nor would be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in the national market for the manufacture and supply of PET bottles for non-alcoholic beverages.
Thu 27 May 2004
“With the 2004 budget the government has abandoned any pretence that its top priority is economic growth”, Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business, said today. “No long-term strategy is laid out for making New Zealand a high productivity, high wage, high employment economy.
“The budget is almost all about wealth redistribution (dividing the pie), not wealth creation (making the pie bigger). Beyond the short term, this is a losing strategy for helping people to get ahead, including those on low incomes.
“The budget also confirms that minister of finance Michael Cullen’s report card for getting the economy on to a higher growth path by his own deadline of mid-2004 is - in NCEA terminology- “not achieved”. The budget projections are in fact for lower annual GDP growth rates, averaging under 3 percent a year for the next four years, compared with 3.5 percent for the past 10 years. In per capita GDP terms, the decline is from 2.5 percent to 2 percent a year. Moreover, no increase in labour productivity growth is projected and no reduction in the unemployment rate.
Mr Kerr said that positive aspects of the budget included:
- the reduction in the gross debt target to 20 percent of GDP;
- a recognition of the importance of supporting families, and making work a more attractive option than welfare; and
- some of the decisions on economic development and industry/research collaboration, although business at large prefers lower taxes to corporate welfare. Moreover, such spending can have at most only an infinitesimal impact on a $138 billion economy.
Offsetting these, however, were major negative features:
- an extraordinary $14 billion of planned additional government spending over the next 3 years, which is bound to put more pressure on interest rates and the export sector;
- more low quality spending, such as the extension of allowances to greater numbers of tertiary students, and an absence of initiatives to get greater value for money for taxpayer dollars;
- the missed opportunity to align tax policy with growth objectives by lowering high personal and company tax rates. The highest marginal tax rates and taxes on capital income are the most damaging to growth. The Treasury had recently advocated this approach, estimating that all rates could be reduced to a flat rate of 18 percent for an annual cost of $4.7 billion;
- the failure to heed overseas lessons of welfare reform which clearly show that greater incentives to work need to be coupled with tighter administrative rules, including time limits on benefits, to reduce welfare dependency. Modifications to benefit abatement rates are likely to have only a weak effect, and they increase the effective marginal tax rates further up the income scale faced by those exiting welfare; and
- the absence of announcements on changes to growth-reducing policies such as inflexible employment laws, over-regulation of business, the Resource Management Act, electricity and roading bottlenecks, and the Kyoto Protocol.
“In too many respects the budget takes us back to the bad days of election-year auctions”, Mr Kerr said. “By spending more than an additional $10,000 for every household in New Zealand over the next three years, the government clearly believes it can spend taxpayers’ money better than taxpayers themselves, which is simply not credible. There is a strong case for amending the Fiscal Responsibility Act to impose greater discipline on government spending and return windfall revenue gains to taxpayers”, Mr Kerr concluded.
Tue 25 May 2004
The combined deficit of New Zealand’s 21 district health boards (DHBs) was $13.3 million for the March 2004 quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand. This was a $26.0 million decrease on the $39.3 million deficit recorded in the December 2003 quarter, and is $19.4 million lower than the deficit in the March 2003 quarter.
Total DHB revenue rose to $1,892.1 million, with funding from the Ministry of Health increasing by $15.0 million (to $1,561.7 million), compared with the December 2003 quarter. Total DHB expenses fell by $21.9 million, to $1,905.5 million in the March 2004 quarter. The two major components of this expenditure are the direct provision of public hospital and health services (HHS), at $1,107.3 million, and the purchase of medical services from non-government providers and inter-DHB services, at $774.0 million. The total expenses of the HHS providers were 1.8 percent lower than in the December 2003 quarter, but 7.3 percent higher when compared with the March 2003 quarter. Employee costs, the key expense item, was down 1.6 percent (to $680.7 million), compared with the December 2003 quarter.
Total DHB investment in fixed assets was $59.9 million in the March 2004 quarter, down on the $103.5 million spent in the December 2003 quarter. For the year ended 31 March 2004, DHBs spent $413.5 million on additions to fixed assets, up 4.1 percent on expenditure in the previous 12 months.
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