Latest / Best of Business / Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the weakening dollar helping rise commodity prices

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Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the weakening dollar helping rise commodity prices · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Well, the will is washed with uncertainly. Our commodities keep
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  Speaker 2: paying the bills. So the March price index is up
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  Speaker 2: six and a half percent, that's a record. Global prices
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  Speaker 2: are up four point one, dere is up five point nine,
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  Speaker 2: aluminium up nine point eight, meet and fiber up two
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  Speaker 2: point four. Do you want more good news? Catherin Rich's
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  Speaker 2: Business New Zealand boss anders back with us A very
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  Speaker 2: good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: So for an export country, you can't ask for much
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  Speaker 2: more than this, can you?
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, on the surface, higher prices do look positive
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  Speaker 3: for exporters, but we need to remember, of course that
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  Speaker 3: they're facing high costs as well for fuel, fertilizer, shipping,
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  Speaker 3: you name it. So it dulls the pain of those
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  Speaker 3: increased prices. But it is a mixed bag.
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  Speaker 2: How much is the dollar helping and the flip side
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  Speaker 2: of that, how much is it hurting us import wise?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the weaker dollar does boost export returns, but once
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  Speaker 3: again it also makes imports more expensive, so helps on
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  Speaker 3: one side and hurts on the other.
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  Speaker 2: Are you seeing genuine price increases at the moment out
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  Speaker 2: of epic fury. I mean we talk about you know,
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  Speaker 2: things going up. Have they gone up apart from petrol
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  Speaker 2: obviously yes.
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  Speaker 3: Well, well, businesses think very carefully before they start to
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  Speaker 3: raise prices, but there have been some increases which they've
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  Speaker 3: just had to do. So we have seen some surcharges
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  Speaker 3: on freight shipping and of course movement on fuel. But
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  Speaker 3: with some of the members that I've spoken to within
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  Speaker 3: Business New Zealand, they haven't passed it all on and
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  Speaker 3: you would have seen their New Zealand making some sort
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  Speaker 3: of comments.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Government's going to meet with business apparently this
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  Speaker 2: week to talk about what might be needed going forward
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  Speaker 2: by way of some sort of helping you aware of
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  Speaker 2: that and what does it that business wants.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we're actually holding that briefing. Nikola Willis and Shane
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  Speaker 3: Jones are going to be speaking to the CEOs from
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  Speaker 3: our Major Companies group. But I would say the government's
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  Speaker 3: done a good job in briefing business and briefing the
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  Speaker 3: general public telling them what they're doing with their various
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  Speaker 3: fuel plans. There's only one build to the fuel plan
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  Speaker 3: that we would ask for and that is that food
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  Speaker 3: and food supply be elevated to band aid because we
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  Speaker 3: see that as life supporting, not necessarily just economically important.
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  Speaker 2: And they'd be open to that sort of thing, I'm
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  Speaker 2: assuming would they?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think so, because if food and food supplies
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  Speaker 3: are an interesting study. Actually, people can put up worth
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  Speaker 3: quite a lot in their lives not being able to
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  Speaker 3: turn the lights on, or they can conceptualize all sorts
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  Speaker 3: of things that will happen, but at the moment there's
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  Speaker 3: an as you with anty shelves or people don't think
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  Speaker 3: they're going to get fed, things can be a pear
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  Speaker 3: shape pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 2: You do go down that track, though, it's like cutting
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  Speaker 2: off the ruck or the tax on petrol. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: any ferrari driving rich person can get access to it.
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  Speaker 2: So when you're transporting food, is it chips you're transporting
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  Speaker 2: or is it actual proper food? And you go down
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  Speaker 2: that track, don't you? And it becomes tricky.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you certainly would need to keep the soup market
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  Speaker 3: shelves full, and you have to keep food service flowing
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  Speaker 3: because people get their food and feed their family through
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  Speaker 3: all sorts of sources, from the local dairy through to
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  Speaker 3: the large pack and save. So you do have to
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  Speaker 3: be able to feed people. That's a pretty fundamental thing
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  Speaker 3: for any government. But it's balancing act and.
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  Speaker 2: That's where it gets tricky. Yeah, exactly, it's where it
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  Speaker 2: gets tricky, Catherine. You go back to COVID and the
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  Speaker 2: supermarkets open, but the butcher isn't, et cetera. Appreciate your time,
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  Speaker 2: Catherine Rich out of Business, New Zealand. Just quickly on
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  Speaker 2: those numbers. The only problem I can see commodity wise
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  Speaker 2: is walls up drop for the month, but up for
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  Speaker 2: the year at forty nine. Forestry seems to be in trouble,
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  Speaker 2: down three point one for the month and down five
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  Speaker 2: point three for the year, and that's China and lack
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  Speaker 2: of construction in that part of the world.
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