New Zealand business confidence declined for a seventh month in September, to the lowest level in more than two years, as election uncertainty added to concerns about slowing economic growth, according to ANZ Bank’s latest Business Outlook survey. A net 13.4 percent of respondents were optimistic business conditions would improve in the coming year, down from a net of 24.4 in August, and …

The Financial Markets Authority has warned New Zealanders to exercise “extreme caution” when dealing with building society General Equity and has ordered the company to display the regulator’s warning on its website. The Auckland-based registered building society is not a registered deposit taker or subject to the oversight of the Reserve Bank and conducts most of its business offshore, the regulator said …

New Zealand building consents held steady in August from a month earlier, underpinned by approvals for apartments and retirement village units. The number of seasonally adjusted consents was flat at 2,104 in August, the same reading as in July, which recorded a 1.7 percent drop from the previous month, Statistics New Zealand said. Excluding apartments, which can be volatile, consents dropped 1.6 …