The Reserve Bank’s restrictions on low-deposit home loans won’t have much impact in alleviating pressures in a housing market driven by a shortage of land and high local authority compliance costs, says ANZ New Zealand chairman John Judge. Judge, chairman of New Zealand’s biggest lender, was speaking at Fletcher Building’s annual meeting in Auckland, where he is a director. “The …

Fletcher Building forecast earnings before interest and tax for 2014 of between $610 million and $650 million, saying there has been no improvement in Australia and weak trading is being compounded by a strong kiwi dollar. “In Australia, there has been no noticeable improvement in volumes since the new financial year began and our prognosis for the year is for …

New Zealand inflation rose at its fastest quarterly pace in two years as petrol prices increased and out-of-season vegetables were more expensive, lifting the annual pace back within the Reserve Bank’s target band for the first time in a year. The consumers price index increased 0.9 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, its fastest pace since June 2011, …