Finance Minister Bill English has unveiled his sixth budget, setting the fiscal agenda for NZ just months out from the election. Since 2009, English has worked towards bringing New Zealand back to surplus and has finally been able to confirm what seemed like a distant goal in the wake of the global financial crisis. In what he  previewed as a …

The New Zealand dollar jumped to a one-month high against the British pound after the Bank of England dashed the hopes of some investors who had expected it to signal a tightening in monetary policy. The kiwi touched 51.72 British pence early this morning, and was trading at 51.62 pence at 8am in Wellington, from 51.38 pence at 5pm yesterday. The local …

Wall Street slipped from record highs as some investors took the opportunity to lock in profits on a day without immediate impetus to drive valuations higher and disappointing corporate results such as from Deere. With about an hour of trading left in the day in New York, the Dow slid 0.38 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.19 …