The SBS Bank and Hastings Building Society are to merge after Hastings Building Society, or HBS, members voted to combine the banks at a meeting yesterday. The vote was 98% in favour, significantly over the 75% threshold required to ratify the merger. SBS Bank has assets of more than $2.6 billion and 15 branches nationwide, while HBS has assets of $185 million. ›read more

State-owned electricity network operator Transpower won’t be paying a dividend to the government this year, despite an improvement in profit for the year to June. Transpower reported this morning that its net underlying profit was $142 million dollars for the last financial year, an increase of 6.6 million on the previous year’s result. ›read more

Australians are looking down the barrel of their first hung parliament in 70 years. Forsyth Barr Investment Advisor Tony Conroy says that the uncertain future of the government has led to uncertainty on financial markets. The Australian market has tracked downwards since the election, and the New Zealand dollar has strengthened against the Australian. ›read more

Nationwide protests are planned by unions in response to proposed changes to employment laws. There are two events planned for Dunedin, firstly tomorrow members of the National Distribution Union are holding a meeting at Burns Hall from 10 am.. ›read more

Growth in New Zealand's service sector slowed over the last month, in the face of weaker sales and deliveries. The slowdown is cited as evidence the economy is still experiencing meandering growth. The BNZ-Business NZ performance of services index fell 4.6 points in July from June to 50.5, on a scale where 50 is the neutral point between expansion and contraction. ›read more

The price of food rose 1.6% last month, according to figures released by Statistics New Zealand today. The fruit and vegetables subgroup rose by more than 8% due to a seasonal rise in vegetable prices. The fancier forms of lettuce rose by more than 44%, while tomatoes were up by nearly 14% ›read more

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New Zealand and Australia's 90 year trade war over apple exports may finally be nearing an end after a World Trade Organisation ruling in Geneva early this morning. Since the 1920's, Australia has refused to allow apple exports from New Zealand in, claiming that fireblight on New Zealand apples would infect its apple and pear orchards. ›read more

Electronic card transactions in core retail increased 0.7% in July, compared to June. Despite this increase, the value of total transactions was flat. While most core retail industries had rises in July, consumables was the main contributor to the increase in the core retail series. ›read more

A 'do nothing' housing market has been blamed for the recent drop in the property market in a report released by QV, New Zealand's largest property valuation company. And while Dunedin property values are up 3.7% since last year, this is a decline from last month's 5.4%. Housing sales have also fallen by around a third since last year. ›read more

Figures released today by Statistics New Zealand show the country's unemployment rate has risen by almost a whole percent. In seasonally adjusted terms, New Zealand's unemployment rate rose from 6 to 6.8% during the June 2010 quarter. This rise takes back much of the drop in unemployment seen during the March 2010 quarter, and indicates a period of volatility in the labour market. ›read more