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The government has sprinkled the proceeds of its $4.7 billion assets sales programme across projects ranging from housing developments to irrigation schemes and an increased bailout for state-owned Kiwirail. Some $1 billion of the money, held by the Future Investment Fund, has been allocated in the 2014 budget, including $67 million for a new Grey Base Hospital on the West …

Two days after Australia’s black budget, New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English has unveiled a Crown balance sheet where revenue growth runs ahead of expenses in an economy accelerating to the fastest pace in a decade. English confirmed a return to Budget surplus in 2015 at $372 million, wider than the $86 million projected in the half year economic and …

Concerns over the high cost of building materials see the government temporarily cutting tariffs and anti-dumping duties on imported building products to zero, as part of efforts to improve housing affordability. The duty cuts will include products such as plasterboard, reinforcing steel bar and wire nails, and tariffs will fall to zero for products such as roofing, cladding, insulation, paints, …

The government is to proceed with new a regime allowing start-up companies to cash out all or part of their tax losses from research and development expenditure, and to write off “black hole” R&D spending on unsuccessful projects. The announcements are expected to cost the government around $58.1 million over four years and follow a consultation process in which both …

Six years ago, just before the global financial crisis but as a local recession was taking hold, then Finance Minister Michael Cullen delivered substantial tax cuts in the last Budget of the Labour-led government’s nine year reign. With a general election looming, it looked like the kind of Budget the Finance Minister in a National-led government might have liked to …

The New Zealand Debt Management Office will lift issuance by $3 billion over the coming four years on a slower forecast return to cash surplus. The DMO will raise $8 billion in 2014/15, and $7 billion each of next three years, with an extra $1 billion to be issued in 2015, 2017 and 2018, it said in a statement. The …

The government sees faster growth in the coming years as 40-year high terms of trade and an improving labour market drive increased consumer spending, and as the Canterbury rebuild looks like lasting longer than previously thought. Gross domestic product is thought to have accelerated to 3 percent in the year ended March 31, 2014, before peaking at a decade-high 4 …

With Finance Minister Bill English set to deliver his sixth budget for the country, newzealandinc.com looks at five key themes to consider for the upcoming year’s financial framework. 1. Surplus – It’s been six years in the making and English will finally get to confirm this afternoon that the nation’s books are set to get out of the red. It seemed …

The pace of expansion in New Zealand’s manufacturing sector eased in April, to dip below the 4-month average, as two consecutive long weekends weighed on production. The BNZ-Business NZ seasonally adjusted performance of manufacturing index fell to 55.2 in April, from a downwardly revised 58 in March, and 55.9 in April last year. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in …

Ryman Healthcare, New Zealand’s largest listed retirement village operator, lifted profit 43 percent as it gained more revenue from a larger base of villages and the value of property increased. Net income rose to $194.8 million, or 39 cents a share, in the 12 months ended March 13, from $136.7 million, or 27.3 cents, a year earlier, Christchurch-based Ryman said in …