New Zealand will ink an economic cooperation agreement with Taiwan in Wellington tomorrow evening completing a triumvirate of  FTAs with China and its satellites: Hong Kong and Taiwan. NZ will be the first Western nation to triangulate the trade relationship with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Singapore – which like NZ is understood to have agreed the guts of the …

Christchurch City Council had its credit rating cut one notch and is still on a negative outlook after losing its accreditation to issue building consents. Global rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut the long and short-term ratings to A+/A-1 from AA-/A-1+ after lowering its assessment of the city’s political and management strength, it said in a statement. The downgrade comes …

The New Zealand dollar may decline this week as traders increase bets that the Federal Reserve will start to reduce stimulus in September as the US economy shows signs of improvement. The local currency may trade between 75 US cents and 79 cents this week, with a lower bias, according to a BusinessDesk survey of 10 traders and strategists. Eight …