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

ASB latest bank to drop mortgage rates

ASB has reduced its longer-term mortgage rates, following last week’s cut to short-term rates.

Auditor-General wants more scrutiny of government spending

The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) is ringing the alarm bells over falling accountability of government spending. The watchdog is worried recent governments have been going overboard allocating funding to projects to be spent over a few years when they should be sticking to the default practice of allocating funding on an annual basis.

Another 26,000 ‘will be unemployed’ before peak reached

Another 26,000 people may find themselves out of work before the peak in unemployment is reached, forecasters say.

Net migration loss of NZ citizens exceeds 50,000 a year for the first time

A record 52,500 New Zealand citizens left the country in the year ended March 31, according to Stats NZ.

Fonterra CEO on NZ’s ’emotional’ links to brands up for sale

Fonterra’s chief executive has admitted the company’s proposal to sell of a number of its well-known brands has been met with a small amount of resistance from people with “emotional connections to these brands” amid a “generally positive” response from shareholders.

LGNZ to launch city and regional deals plan

Local Government NZ hopes city and regional deals will help reset the relationship between central and local authorities

The industry where insolvencies are up 136%

Almost 50 businesses are going to the wall every week, new data shows. Auckland firm BWA Insolvency has tracked data on liquidations, receiverships and voluntary administrations since 2012. Its latest report shows there were 553 insolvencies in the three months to March 31.

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