The New Zealand dollar was little changed in local trading as traders await US talks to avert the US$600 billion fiscal cliff and after New Zealand’s Treasury pared back its growth forecasts. The kiwi traded at 84.42 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 84.36 cents at 8.30am and 84.39 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index was 75.26 from 75.27 yesterday. …

Sports Minister Murray McCully has labelled last year’s Rugby World Cup a success after independent research found it added $573 million to an otherwise tepid economy. The sporting event added 0.34 percent to New Zealand’s gross domestic product over the medium-term, or $573 million in 2007 dollar terms, and added some 7,840 part and full-time jobs, based on Market Economics …

The New Zealand Debt Management Office has expanded its programme for issuing bonds by $6.5 billion over the next four years and flagged it will sell a further $7 billion in debt the following year. The DMO will issue $14 billion in bonds in the 2012/13 year, an increase of $500 million from the budget, and sell an unchanged $10 …