Somewhere in St. Ann, there lives a happy man. The Missouri state treasurer’s office recently told the fellow that he has $125,000 coming.
Who is he? The treasurer isn’t telling. Nor is he saying just how this big surprise came about.
Treasurer Clint Zweifel’s office is in charge of finding the owners of missing valuables. The valuables turn up in abandoned safe deposit boxes, in long-dormant bank accounts, in uncollected life insurance policies and from other sources.
In the case of St. Ann’s mystery man, the money was in a checking account in the man’s name, says Zweifel spokesman Jon Galloway. Beyond that, Galloway’s lips are sealed.
He says he’d be guilty of a misdemeanor if he revealed much more. That leaves us all to wonder how a fellow could be missing $125,000 and not realize it.
The St. Ann fellow isn’t alone. Zweifel recently returned $150,000 in securities to a business in Clayton.
In all, the treasurer has returned more than $1 million to just eight owners since February. Since last July, he’s returned $30 million to 105,000 owners. Last year, Zweifel’s office returned $1.6 million to a single individual in St. Louis.
Sometimes, the treasurer’s office finds an insurance policy taken out on children long ago. Both the parents and children are now dead, and no one knows where the heirs have gone.
It may have been a few shares of stock in an account forgotten long in the past. “Over the years it split and split and now you have a lot of money,” says Galloway.
People can check for unclaimed property in Missouri at www.showmemoney.com
Japanese Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said he asked China and South Korea to rely on scientific evidence in deciding whether to ban Japanese goods over concern they may be contaminated with radiation.
Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong Hoon both agreed that will be the criteria for any import restrictions, Kaieda told reporters after meeting his counterparts in Tokyo today. Chen and Kim also said safety is their priority, Kaieda added.
Trading partners worldwide are testing Japanese products for radiation following leaks at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
China, Japan’s largest export market, earlier this month expanded a ban on imports of food and agricultural produce, threatening to exacerbate an export slump in the world’s third- largest economy after a record earthquake disrupted supply chains.
South Korea, Singapore and the U.S. have also halted imports of some products on concern that produce grown around the stricken nuclear station has been contaminated.
Japan, South Korea and China agreed on the need to accelerate negotiations to form a free-trade agreement among them, and to “resist protectionism in all forms,” according to a joint statement released after the discussions today.
The longest rally in developing- nation stocks since 1997 may be ending as higher interest rates in Brazil, Russia, India and China curb earnings growth.
For the first time in two years, emerging-market analysts are cutting profit estimates more than they’re raising them, consumer stocks are trailing energy producers and shares of smaller companies are losing to larger equities, data compiled by Bloomberg and Morgan Stanley show. The same reversals foreshadowed the end of the emerging-market rally in 2008.
While the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index has gained 0.9 percent this year and mutual fund investors are buying developing-nation equities at the fastest pace in five months, the gauge is valued at about 2.1 times net assets, 11 percent higher than the 15-year average. Societe Generale SA and Barclays Wealth are advising clients to reduce emerging markets investments as inflation erodes record-high profit margins.
“Inflation risk is much more visible” in emerging markets than the developed world, said Kevin Gardiner, the global head of investment strategy at London-based Barclays Wealth, which oversees about $266 billion. “Growth is beginning to slow. Meanwhile, valuations look full.”
The MSCI emerging-market index retreated 1.7 percent yesterday after Standard & Poor’s cut its credit outlook on the U.S., the world’s biggest economy, to negative from stable. The gauge slipped 0.1 percent to 1,160.56 at 8:50 a.m. in London.
Margin Squeeze
Inflation in China and India accelerated by more than economists predicted in March as rising commodities and inflows of capital into the fastest-growing major economies thwarted policy makers’ efforts to contain prices, government reports showed last week. Consumer prices in Brazil rose at the fastest pace in more than two years last month, while Russia’s inflation rate is 0.1 percentage point below the highest level since October 2009.
China has increased borrowing costs four times since October, while India raised rates eight times since March 2010 and Brazil boosted its rate five times. Russia lifted its main rate in February. China’s benchmark one-year lending rate is 6.31 percent, while India’s repurchase rate is 6.75 percent and Brazil’s Selic rate is 11.75 percent. Russia’s refinancing rate is 8 percent.
‘Party Is Over’
Rising costs and interest rates are starting to take a toll on company profits. Gross margin, or the percentage of sales remaining after product expenses, has slipped to an average 31 percent for companies in the MSCI emerging-market index, from 33 percent last year, the highest level since Bloomberg began tracking the annual data in 1996.
Rising commodity prices are “triggering second-round effects via higher wages,” Alain Bokobza, the head of asset allocation strategy at Paris-based SocGen, wrote in an April 11 report titled “The EM Party Is Over.” He recommends switching to developed-nation equities from emerging markets.
Infosys was the seventh-biggest contributor to the MSCI index’s 2 percent retreat last week. The gauge’s decline yesterday pared the gain from its March 2009 low to 145 percent. The 21-country index has rallied for 777 calendar days without a drop of at least 20 percent, the longest stretch since July 1997, according to data compiled by Westport, Connecticut-based research firm Birinyi Associates Inc. and Bloomberg.
Goldman Turns Bullish
The emerging-market gauge’s 0.9 percent advance this year through yesterday compares with a 2.9 percent gain in the MSCI World Index of advanced-country shares and 3.8 percent for the S&P 500.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has turned bullish on emerging- market stocks, saying that central banks will slow the pace of monetary tightening as inflation eases. A United Nations gauge of world food prices fell in March for the first time in nine months, while the S&P GSCI Index of commodities has slipped 3.7 percent from this year’s high on April 8.
China said on April 15 its economy expanded at a faster- than-estimated 9.7 percent rate in the first quarter, a sign that demand is weathering tighter monetary policy.
“The balance of risks is shifting,” wrote Noah Weisberger, a New York-based analyst at Goldman Sachs. The bank expects emerging-market stocks to rally about 12 percent, according to an e-mailed note yesterday.
Fund Flows
Mutual-fund investors are also reviving bets on a rally. They poured about $10 billion into developing-nation stock funds during the past three weeks, the most in five months, data compiled by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm EPFR Global show. That compares with $28 billion of outflows in the previous nine weeks, EPFR data show.
Analysts are cutting more profit forecasts than they’re raising them for seven of 10 industry groups in the MSCI emerging-market gauge, with the biggest reductions on health care, telecommunications and technology companies, according to Morgan Stanley. Energy companies are getting the biggest estimate upgrades after oil prices surged 17 percent this year to near the highest levels since 2008.
Consumer stocks in the MSCI emerging-market index trailed energy companies by 10 percentage points in the first quarter, the most since the second quarter of 2008, when emerging-market equities began tumbling amid the global financial crisis. Small- cap companies, which have market values of less than $2 billion and get a higher proportion of their revenue from consumers, trailed the biggest emerging-market stocks by 5.5 percentage points last quarter, also the most since 2008.
‘Important Moment’
“It’s quite difficult for equity markets to rally if you have negative revisions to the earnings outlook,” Jonathan Garner, the chief Asia and emerging-market strategist at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, said in an interview. “This is quite an important moment and we don’t think the situation will improve in the coming months.”
Garner’s 1,290 year-end price estimate for the MSCI emerging-market index is about 10 percent below the 1,428 average of five strategist forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.
China International Capital Corp., the country’s biggest investment bank, predicts slowing economic and earnings growth will limit equity gains in the biggest emerging stock market. The top-ranked provider of China research in Asiamoney’s survey recommends “defensive” Chinese companies including drugmakers and consumer-staples producers.
Infosys, Televisa
China bulls expecting a rally in stocks as the central banks nears the end of its monetary policy tightening may be disappointed, Hao Hong, the global equity strategist at CICC, said in an April 10 report.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong dropped 23 percent in the six months after the central bank stopped raising rates in 2007, underperforming the MSCI emerging-market index by 14 percentage points. In 2004, the H-share gauge rose about 3 percent after rate increases ended, trailing the MSCI index by 8 percentage points.
Infosys has tumbled 12 percent in Mumbai trading since the company reported results on April 15. Credit Suisse Group AG downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “outperform,” citing the company’s “poor” outlook for profit margins. The shares are valued at about 24 times earnings, compared with the five- year average of 27 times, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Grupo Televisa SA, the world’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster, sank to a six-month low in Mexico City trading last week after first-quarter profit fell 18 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts cut their 2011 earnings estimate for Televisa yesterday, saying that rising costs and “weak” revenue are eroding profits.
“In most emerging markets, you do have these margin pressures building,” Michael Shaoul, the chairman of Marketfield Asset Management in New York, who has been shifting investments to the U.S. from emerging markets, said in an interview. “We’re fairly convinced that this monetary cycle will end in some distress.”
Farmers say they have long feared the legal might of Creve Couer-based Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, and its pursuit of farmers who violate the company’s patents on genetically modified seeds.
Now a group of them is making a pre-emptive maneuver of sorts.
The New York-based Public Patent Foundation, a group that describes its mission as representing the public’s interest in freedom from unjustified patent restraints, filed suit in a Manhattan district court Tuesday, challenging the company’s patents on genetically modified seeds.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 60 farmers, organic agriculture organizations and seed companies, including Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, based in Mansfield, Mo., about 200 miles southwest of St. Louis.
“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed should land on their property,” said Dan Ravicher, the group’s executive director, in a statement.
“It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interest of our clients.”
The lawsuit says the company’s claims that genetically modified seeds have increased production and reduced weed killer are false, and, therefore, the company’s patents on genetically modified seed are invalid because they don’t meet the “usefulness” requirement of patent law.
In a news release, Monsanto said it has never sued farmers over inadvertent presence of its patented traits in their fields and has committed to not do so.
“(The foundation’s) approach is a publicity stunt designed to confuse the facts about American agriculture and we will vigorously defend ourselves. It is well established that biotech crops have provided significant benefit to farmers and the environment, including increased yields.”
The company has said it pursues farmers who violate patents by illegally planting its seed. Most of the cases are settled without going to trial.
The company has filed 144 lawsuits for patent infringement since 1997 through April 2010. Nine of those have gone through a full trial, and in every case a judge or jury decided in the company’s favor, according to a company spokeswoman.
In the past two months, regulators have approved the planting of Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa and sugar beets despite ongoing court challenges.
Regulators on Friday shut down small banks in Oklahoma and Wisconsin, lifting to 25 the number of U.S. bank failures this year after economic distress and soaring loan defaults brought down 157 banks in 2010.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized First National Bank of Davis, with one office in Davis, Okla., $90.2 million in assets and $68.3 million in deposits; and minority-owned Legacy Bank in Milwaukee, also with one office, with $190.4 million in assets and $183.3 million in deposits.
Pauls Valley National Bank, based in Pauls Valley, Okla., agreed to assume all the deposits and $28.5 million of the loans and other assets of First National Bank of Davis. Chicago-based Seaway Bank and Trust Co. is assuming the deposits and $165.9 million of the assets of Legacy Bank. The FDIC will retain the rest of the failed banks’ assets for future sale.
In addition, the FDIC and Seaway Bank and Trust agreed to share losses on $120 million of Legacy Bank’s assets.
The failure of First National Bank of Davis is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $26.5 million; the failure of Legacy Bank is expected to cost $43.5 million.
The 157 bank closures last year topped the 140 shuttered in 2009. It was the most in a year since the savings-and-loan crisis two decades ago.
The FDIC has said that 2010 likely would be the peak for bank failures payday loans online. Already this year the pace of closures has slowed: By this time last year, regulators had closed 30 banks.
The 2009 failures cost the insurance fund about $36 billion. The failures last year cost around $21 billion, a lower price tag because the banks that failed in 2010 were smaller on average. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force; only three were closed in 2007.
The growing number of bank failures has sapped billions of dollars out of the deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red in 2009, and its deficit stood at $7.4 billion as of Dec. 31.
The number of banks on the FDIC’s confidential “problem” list rose to 884 in the final quarter of last year from 860 three months earlier. The 884 troubled banks is the highest number since 1993, during the savings-and-loan crisis.
The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to total around $52 billion from 2010 through 2014.
Depositors’ money _ insured up to $250,000 per account _ is not at risk, with the FDIC backed by the government. That insurance cap was made permanent in the financial overhaul law enacted in July.
Ford Motor posted its highest annual income in more than a decade Friday, although fourth-quarter earnings disappointed investors.
The problem for Ford was more one of expectations than execution, as Ford’s results included a lot of good news, but also some increased costs, such as the price of raw materials as well as spending on engineering and marketing, that caught Wall Street analysts by surprise.
As a result of its first earnings miss in two years, Ford (F, Fortune 500) shares fell more than 12% in midday trading. Still, even with that sell-off, shares are up more than 40% over the course of the past 12 months.
Despite the earnings miss, full-year profits for 2010 climbed to $6.6 billion from $2.7 billion in 2009, the best since 1999.
But the company, which recaptured its position as the No. 2 automaker in terms of U.S. sales in 2010, posted a fourth-quarter operating profit of $1.2 billion, or 30 cents a share, excluding special items. That was down from 43 cents a share on that basis a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 48 cents a share excluding special items. The result was below even the most conservative forecast of a 36 cents a share profit.
At least part of the fourth-quarter disappointment came from a small loss in its European unit, compared with a profit there a year earlier. Ford had previously said it expected to be profitable in Europe in the quarter.
But Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer, said a bigger part of the problem was that the company failed to sufficiently communicate to Wall Street the impact of higher expenses.
"We recognized we missed," he said during the conference call to discuss results with analysts and reporters. "We’ll have to continue to do a better job communicating what the outlook is."
CEO Alan Mulally said the company was pleased with full-year results.
"Our 2010 results exceeded our expectations, accelerating our transition from fixing the business fundamentals to delivering profitable growth for all," he said in the company’s statement.
Mulally and Booth both said they expect the company will report better results in 2011 than it did in 2010, but they wouldn’t give any details about how much better. Mulally declined to say whether current forecasts — for a 29% improvement in first quarter earnings and a 15% increase in full-year earnings, were realistic.
For the most part, analysts continued to see more positives than problems at Ford.
"I don’t think anyone doubts your ability to make more money in 2011," said Adam Jonas, auto analyst with Morgan Stanley, to Booth during the conference call.
In a note Friday, Jonas reiterated that he expects Ford’s earnings to jump by more than 50% in 2011 — well above consensus estimates.
Efraim Levy, auto equity analyst with Standard & Poor’s, said it is a significant milestone that Ford’s cash flow and debt repayments during the quarter left it with more cash on hand than total debt for the first time since early 2008.
"It’s a good sign when you have cash available to deploy on product development and overseas expansion, rather than having to scramble for cash," he told CNNMoney. He also wasn’t too worried about Ford missing earnings targets.
"Sometimes after a long string of success, the analysts get a little too enthusiastic," he said. "The fundamental story I see remains positive. Forget the earnings — look at the trend."
Rank-and-file auto workers will benefit from Ford’s strong results as well, as the company announced it would pay profit-sharing bonuses averaging about $5,000 to 40,600 members of the United Auto Workers at its U.S. plants. That’s well above the $450 average they received a year ago.
Despite the disappointing bottom line, Ford’s quarterly sales of $32.5 billion topped forecasts of $30.4 billion, even though they fell from the $34.8 billion in sales a year earlier.
For the year revenue rose to $120.9 billion, up $4.6 billion from 2009, even though the company sold off its Volvo brand during the course of the year. Excluding Volvo sales, revenue rose $17 billion, or 15%.
Ford (F, Fortune 500) was the only U.S. automaker that did not need a federal bailout or a trip through bankruptcy court in 2009. Its rivals — General Motors (GM) and Chrysler Group, have also enjoyed a turnaround, but neither are making the gains with U.S. buyers that Ford has.
Ford also benefited from the recall troubles at Toyota Motor (TM) in 2010, which caused the Japanese automaker to lose market share for the first time since 1999, and drop out of the No. 2 sales position in U.S. sales.
Missouri hog farmers have a vision: planeloads of Midwestern pork chops flying to China, landing on the dinner tables of a booming middle class with the cash and appetite for premium protein.
Indeed, trade prospects for pork and beef topped the list of selling points that business and agricultural leaders employed in trying to lure Chinese cargo planes to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
“That was a really important part of the package,” said Jason Van Eaton, executive director of the Midwest China Hub Commission, the group working to make St make quick cash. Louis the entry point for Chinese air cargo in the Midwest. “That’s what we led with.”
With the Chinese population approaching 1.4 billion and wealth growing at a stunning rate, the appetite for luxury products is surging. The Chinese are buying high-end appliances, cars, clothes and wine, flaunting them as symbols of their success. Meat producers here hope that prime American meat becomes the next must-have luxury on the Chinese shopping list.
Though hurdles remain
Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo’s government has ordered the seizure of the regional central bank’s offices in Ivory Coast in an attempt to retain control of state finances after being cut off from the money used to pay civil servants.
His political rival Alassane Ouattara, who is the internationally recognized winner of the presidential election held nearly two months ago, condemned the move Wednesday.
“This illegitimate and illegal decision to requisition is null and void. Thus, anyone who participates directly or indirectly in its implementation will be subject to sanctions and criminal prosecution,” the statement said.
A spokeswoman at the bank’s headquarters in Dakar, Senegal was not immediately available for comment.
Without access to government funds, it’s unclear whether Gbagbo will be able to continuing paying the country’s military and security forces. Ouattara supporters hope that by stemming the flow of funds to Gbagbo’s government they can force a mass defection.
Gbagbo’s finance minister Desire Dallo announced on state television late Tuesday that the Ivorian government was seizing the regional bank’s offices in Ivory Coast. Employees are to answer to local officials in Ivory Coast instead of the regional bank headquarters in Senegal, the order said.
The bank’s branch in Abidjan was open Wednesday, and dozens of soldiers and military police surrounded the building, only allowing bank employees to enter.
A security guard, who did not want his name used because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said two top officials in Gbagbo’s government had entered the building to speak to employees.
The Central Bank of West African States, known by its acronym BCEAO, regroups the treasuries of eight West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
Gbagbo’s access to state accounts was first revoked in December, when officials said that only representatives of Ouattara’s government would have signing privileges on state accounts payday loans in 1 hour. However, Ouattara officials said despite that action, Gbagbo had been able to still access money from the central bank.
The head of the central bank, a Gbagbo supporter who had been accused of not cooperating with Ouattara, resigned Saturday.
As the political crisis over the disputed election drags on, the two men vying for power in Ivory Coast have increasingly tried to step up the financial pressure on one another. Earlier this week, Ouattara called for a one-month on cocoa exports from the country, which is the world’s largest cocoa producer.
The 15-nation West African bloc of countries known as ECOWAS also has threatened to oust Gbagbo by force if negotiations fail, but has set no deadline for such an intervention.
Ivory Coast was divided into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south by a 2002-2003 civil war. The country was officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, but the long-delayed presidential election was intended to help reunify the nation. Instead, the U.N. says at least 260 people have been killed in violence since the vote.
Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that security forces and militias loyal to Gbagbo have been carrying out systematic killing and rapes targeting Ouattara supporters.
The report cited several witnesses who said that the militiamen would demand to see identity cards of those stopped at the roadblocks and decided to kill them if they had last names from the north of the country, where Ouattara’s support is strong.
Police also targeted midlevel Ouattara party members, arriving at their houses and asking for them by name before kidnapping them, the report said. In some cases, family members were raped during these house calls and several party members were found later in city morgues riddled with bullets, it said.
Gbagbo’s allies have repeatedly denied any involvement in the postelection violence.
Peabody Energy Corp. said Thursday that severe flooding in Queensland has prompted it to declare force majeure on some Australian coal shipments.
The St. Louis-based coal producer didn’t specify the volume of shipments that have been interrupted or provide additional details.
Force majeure is a contract clause that frees a party from fulfilling obligations because of circumstances outside of its control, such as extreme weather check cash advance.
Peabody sold 20 million tons of coal through the first three quarters of 2010, or just over 10 percent of the company’s total. However, that production represented more than a third of the company’s total revenue and profit.
New Zealand’s central bank will probably keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged and may lower economic forecasts as domestic demand weakens and dry weather threatens farm production.
Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Alan Bollard will leave the official cash rate at 3 percent at 9 a.m. tomorrow in Wellington, according to all 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Ten analysts expect the first rate rise in March and four forecast an increase in the second quarter, the survey showed.
Weaker growth and a pause in rates may curb demand for New Zealand’s currency, the third-best performer in the past year among Group of 10 currencies. Bollard also may lower growth forecasts and signal a more gradual increase in borrowing costs because of concerns a drought may curb overseas sales of milk, meat and other exports, which make up 30 percent of the economy.
“The RBNZ’s projections will imply a slightly later resumption of the tightening cycle,” said Darren Gibbs, chief New Zealand economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Auckland. “Risks to agricultural sector production from the possible continuation of recent very dry weather and the disease impacting kiwifruit vines will also be weighing on the governor’s mind.”
Parts of the country are “heading for extremely dry conditions, probably drought,” Agriculture Minister David Carter said in a Dec. 2 interview.
A bacterial disease that affects vine growth has been detected in 107 kiwifruit orchards, threatening the NZ$1.4 billion ($1.1 billion) export industry. The country is also investigating a surge in deaths on local marine farms of Pacific oysters, an industry estimated to be worth NZ$26 million in 2009.
Milk Output
Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., the world’s biggest dairy exporter, said on Dec. 2 it was watching weather conditions closely. North Island milk collection fell 4.3 percent last year because of dry conditions in the largest milk-producing province.
Gibbs expects the central bank will lower its forecasts for growth in the year ending March 31, 2011, from 2.8 percent because of weakness in the housing market and consumer spending, and the disruption caused by the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Canterbury province Sept. 4.
Gross domestic product increased 0.2 percent in the three months ended June 30, less than a quarter of the pace Bollard predicted in September. Third-quarter growth may also miss the central bank’s 0.8 percent forecast.
Bollard said in a Nov. 19 speech that the economic recovery “could yet be a prolonged process” amid sluggish demand and a weak recovery in major markets for New Zealand goods such as the U.S., Japan and the U.K.
RBA’s Pause
Australia’s central bank yesterday left its benchmark rate unchanged at 4.75 percent, saying inflation is expected to be “little changed” over the next few quarters and citing market volatility tied to concerns about European government debt.
European finance ministers, who last week handed Ireland an 85 billion euro ($113 billion) lifeline, yesterday ruled out immediate aid for Portugal and Spain. Sovereign debt issues in Europe “add further weight to the Reserve Bank remaining on hold for the time being,” said Nick Tuffley, chief economist at ASB Bank Ltd. in Auckland.
New Zealand’s domestic economy has been slowed by a weak housing market and sluggish consumer spending, even as unemployment declines, economists said.
House prices in November rose 0.3 percent from a year earlier, the smallest gain since October 2009, according to a report yesterday from Quotable Value, a government agency.
Consumer Demand
Consumer purchases on debit, credit and store cards rose 0.8 percent in October, Statistics New Zealand said on Nov. 9. Excluding fuel outlets, spending was unchanged.
“We are witnessing a tightening of retail demand,” Warren Bell, chairman of New Zealand apparel retailer Hallenstein Glasson Holdings Ltd., told the company’s annual meeting in Christchurch yesterday. “The opportunity to improve sales and margin on the existing business base is now far more challenging.”
Consumer confidence was near a 14-month low in November, according to an ANZ National Bank Ltd. Still, business confidence rose for a third month on expectations for more hiring and investment, ANZ National said in a second survey published Nov. 29.
The third-quarter jobless rate fell to 6.4 percent and employers added 22,000 workers, about twice the pace expected in a Bloomberg News survey, according to figures published Nov. 4.
Consumer prices rose 1.5 percent in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, the smallest increase in six years, according to a government report in October. Still, inflation is likely to peak at 4.8 percent by mid-2011 as the sales tax is included, the central bank forecasts.
Bollard is required to keep inflation in a range of 1 percent to 3 percent, and the central bank forecasts prices excluding the effects of the sales tax will peak at 2.1 percent for the year ending June 2011.
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