The kiwi dollar is heading for a 1.1 percent weekly decline against its Australian counterpart as the fortunes of the neighbouring countries trade places with the gloomy pall lifting from Australia and settling over New Zealand. The local currency rose to 79.12 Australian cents at 5pm in Wellington from 78.84 cents yesterday, clawing back some of yesterday’s sell-off after better-than …

Agria Corp, the Chinese parent of PGG Wrightson, posted a wider first-half loss after taking an impairment against rent it had paid on un-used farmland it leases from village collectives. The net loss was 374.8 million yuan (US$60.2 million) in the six months ended Dec. 31, from a loss of 45.6 million yuan a year earlier, the New York stock …

The Reserve Bank might be able to accelerate inflation to its target 2 percent sooner than expected if it cuts rates, but that would come at the expense of plumping an already bubbling property market, assistant governor John McDermott says. The ‘Think Big’ projects of the 1970s are evidence that sustainable long-term growth can’t be achieved by “tolerating a bit …