Weekly Digest – 24 July 2024

Welcome to our Weekly Digest – stay in the know with some recent news updates relevant to business and the economy.

Inflation data shows progress in economic recovery

Todays Consumer Price Index data which has inflation at 3.3 per cent for the year to July 2024, shows we are turning our economy around and winning the fight against rampant inflation, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says.

Why your Kiwisaver balance is probably looking good right now

Strong international stock markets have helped boost New Zealanders’ KiwiSaver and managed fund balances in recent months, even as the local economy stagnates.

Activity in the service sector has dropped again

Activity in New Zealand’s services sector – which accounts for about two-thirds of the country’s GDP – has fallen sharply again in June, according to the BNZ BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index (PSI).

Cost-of-living crisis over?

The battle against inflation may be yielding some dividends. Food prices have already fallen, and now the new Consumers Price Index has some good news for hard-pressed shoppers.

CrowdStrike outage: How to fix the ‘blue screen of death’ on your PC

A problem with Microsoft Windows caused sweeping outages affecting hospitals, airlines, emergency services and people at home. The error, caused by a technical problem with cyber security software from CrowdStrike, sends users to a “blue screen of death”, telling them their device needs to restart.

Tony Alexander: Why the era of crazy house price rises is over

House prices in New Zealand have risen on average by just over 6.5% per year since 1992, with Auckland gaining 7% and the rest of the country 6.2%. Going forward, average gains will not be as high for a wide variety of reasons, and here are some of them.

Tide turning on high mortgage rates

The tide is turning on high interest rates as another bank drops its home loan rates amid falling inflation and a softened tone from the Reserve Bank.

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