Dene Mackenzie

New Zealanders have become increasingly concerned about the state of the labour market and a weakness in earnings growth is emerging as a key worry.

International trade between New Zealand and the European Union should be freed up, BusinessNZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly says.

Heather Cunningham (26) was finishing her degrees in product design, engineering and mechanical engineering in Melbourne when a friend told her Fisher & Paykel Appliances was advertising jobs in Dunedin.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances staff in Dunedin are producing world leading technology for cookware and dishwashers.

Investors are showing some interest in trading Silver Fern Farm shares after the co-operative announced earlier this week the prospects of a deal with Chinese company Shanghai Maling.

New Zealand's current account deficit was close to its historical average in June and is not likely to raise any alarms, ANZ chief economist Cameron Bagrie says.

Silver Fern Farms aims to be debt free with money in the bank by this time next year if a deal to form a 50:50 joint venture with Chinese food giant Shanghai Maling gets shareholder approval.

Invercargill meat processor Alliance Group wasted no time yesterday in trying to woo disgruntled Silver Fern Farm suppliers after Silver Fern announced a joint venture with a Chinese company.

The size of the cash injection from Chinese company Shanghai Maling into Silver Fern Farms caught people off guard yesterday.

Dairy prices are expected to rise strongly for the third consecutive auction at tonight's GlobalDairyTrade auction.

The June quarter economic growth figures will be released on Thursday, but already the figures are looking historical given recent global events.

The potential of Chinese investment in Silver Fern Farms was a crossroads for the company, rural communities and New Zealand as a whole, John McCarthy said yesterday.

New Zealand ''average'' sheep and beef farmers are in for a profit lift and Beef and Lamb chief economist Andrew Burtt calls it positive news at a time when the economy would benefit from increased farm sector spending.

Ann Cronin started as a volunteer at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum about eight months ago, teaching blacksmithing. She had an idea of how to use the museum as a shared space for education. After meeting a couple of other people with bright ideas, things are starting to happen. Business editor Dene Mackenzie reports.

The Government is continuing with its objective of simplifying tax requirements and reducing compliance costs for businesses, Revenue Minister Todd McClay says.

Silver Fern Farms shareholders are becoming increasingly annoyed about the secrecy surrounding the group's attempts to woo a Chinese investor to take a significant share in the meat processor.

Kiwibank, the ANZ Bank and Westpac almost simultaneously dropped their floating mortgage rates by 0.25%, within seconds of the Reserve Bank announcing yesterday it was cutting the official cash rate by the same amount to 2.75%.