This Week On Money Talks - Wednesday 20th April At 8.30pm
This week on MONEY TALKS, award-winning presenter Genevieve Westcott is joined by regular guest, ASB rural economist
James Shortall, along with Rod Oram, who has more than 30 years’ experience as an international financial journalist.
Oram has worked in Europe and North America for leading publications such as the Financial Times of London and
travelled extensively on those continents and in Asia.
Rod and his family immigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 1997. He is currently Contributing Editor at Unlimited, a
New Zealand monthly magazine devoted to the development of the new economy; a columnist for the Sunday Star-Times; a
correspondent for the Financial Times of London; and a regular broadcaster on radio and television. He was Editor of the
Business Herald section of the New Zealand Herald from 1997 to 2000.
Rod is an adjunct professor in the New Zealand Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Unitec and he has
contributed to several recent regional economic development projects.
A multi-award winner, In the 2006 Westpac Business & Financial Journalism Awards, Oram won the Reporting on Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability or Community Engagement
category. In 2007, Penguin published Rod's book about the New Zealand economy, Reinventing Paradise.
He was named the Landcorp Agricultural Communicator of the Year for 2009. And in the 2010 Vero Excellence in Business
Support Awards, Rod won the BDO individual category. This week Money Talks looks into the the over extended markets and
if and when they will correct?
The team also asks the question - Is New Zealand witnessing a move to new trading ranges in a wide range of currencies
and commodities?
As the US dollar continues to weaken, the growing US debt levels continue to ring alarm bells in global financial
markets. The NZ dollar hit the .80 level against the US dollar with focus on NZ’s high commodity prices providing
support, before falling back on disappointing Consumer Price Index data. Prime Minister John Key has commented - “I know
you’re feeling the pinch but there’s not much my government can do about it.”
This, of course is his reaction to news that prices rose at their fastest rate in two years led by fuel costs. Labour
leader Phil Goff said the Government's 2.2% hike in GST increase was "a critical factor" in rising inflation hitting
low- and middle-income earners the hardest.
Inflation according to the latest consumer price index rose 4.5% in the year to March, its fastest rate since just
before the National Party swept to power in 2008.
The increase was fueled by petrol and diesel prices. For farmers with plenty of big machinery, what’s the impact likely
to be?
And as Fonterra powers ahead with its dairy farm developments in China, scoring almost 50% compound annual revenue
growth in the giant Asian economy in the past five years, Money Talks asks is it just about skyrocketing demands for
dairy products in China? For all you need to know, tune into MONEY TALKS, premiering on COUNTRY99TV, Wednesday 20th
April at 8.30pm.
ends