Prospects for growth in the global economy have diminished despite very stimulatory monetary policy and low oil prices. Significant downside risks remain. Financial market volatility increased following the UK referendum and long-term interest rates have fallen.
Domestic growth is expected to remain supported by strong inward migration, construction activity, tourism, and accommodative monetary policy. However, low dairy prices are depressing incomes in the dairy sector and weighing on farm spending and investment.
There continue to be many uncertainties around the outlook. Internationally, these relate to the prospects for global growth and commodity prices, the fragility of global financial markets, and political risks. Domestic uncertainties relate to inflation expectations and the potential for continued high net immigration, ongoing pressures in the housing market, and the high New Zealand dollar exchange rate.
The trade-weighted exchange rate is 6 percent higher than assumed in the June Statement, and is notably higher than in the alternative scenario presented in that Statement. The high exchange rate is adding further pressure to the dairy and manufacturing sectors and, together with weak global inflation, is holding down tradable goods inflation. This makes it difficult for the Bank to meet its inflation objective. A decline in the exchange rate is needed.
House price inflation remains excessive and has become more broad-based across the regions, adding to concerns about financial stability. The Bank is currently consulting on stronger macro-prudential measures aimed at mitigating risks to financial stability from the current boom in house prices.
Annual CPI inflation was 0.4 percent in the year to June 2016. Headline inflation is being held below the target band by continuing negative tradables inflation. Long-term inflation expectations are well-anchored at 2 percent, but short-term inflation expectations remain low.
Despite rising capacity pressures and some recent increase in fuel prices, the stronger exchange rate implies that the outlook for inflation has weakened since the June Statement.
Monetary policy will continue to be accommodative. At this stage it seems likely that further policy easing will be required to ensure that future average inflation settles near the middle of the target range. We will continue to watch closely the emerging economic data.
A RBNZ press release Thursday 21 July 2016
Air New Zealand has teamed up with Hollywood actress Anna Faris and New Zealand actor and comedic legend Rhys Darby for its latest safety video, Safety in Hollywood.
The video, shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, explores several different Hollywood film genres as Darby tries to convince the star of the hit TV show Mom and the Scary Movie films to play a role in Air New Zealand’s new safety video with him.
Safety in Hollywood was filmed at four different sets at Warner Bros. with some of the filming locations seen in legendary movies such as Jurassic Park, Casablanca, War of the Worlds and TV series True Blood. More than 20 extras were also involved, including Chester the Chihuahua, who has appeared in Transformers and Grey’s Anatomy.
Air New Zealand Head of Global Brand Jodi Williams says it’s been fantastic to partner again with Warner Bros. which helped to produce the airline’s Hobbit inflight safety videos, and to work with the talented Rhys Darby and Anna Faris in Hollywood – the home of the US filmmaking industry.
“Anna and Rhys make a great comedic duo and really bring this safety video to life, entertaining customers while at the same time imparting key safety messages,” says Ms Williams.
“Our inflight safety videos are now world famous and we know people anticipate their release. The interest in them has been phenomenal and collectively they’ve attracted more than 83 million views online and featured in international news outlets like CNN, BBC, Time.com and The Daily Mail. This latest video will again draw eyeballs to New Zealand from around the globe and encourage visitors to travel to our wonderful country. It is also another great example of the diverse set of creative talent that our nation nurtures.”
Anna Faris says it’s been exciting and an honour to follow in the footsteps of acting legends like Emmy Award and Grammy Award winner Betty White, the All Blacks and the cast of The Hobbit to take Air New Zealand’s acclaimed safety videos in a new creative direction.
“I really wanted to be part of this project because Air New Zealand has really redefined safety videos with its fun and creative approach. And working with Kiwi actor Rhys Darby was an absolute treat. It’s so easy to tune out when watching a traditional safety video, so it comes as such a delightful surprise when you get something that’s really fun and funny.”
Rhys Darby says producing the safety video was a great experience and quite special given he is now based in Hollywood.
“Air New Zealand’s safety videos are a Kiwi staple and reflect the Kiwi sense of humour. I think people will really enjoy watching this safety video as it takes them on a magical ride through the movie making world, while still bringing to life the key safety messages.”
Safety in Hollywood will be rolled out across the airline’s fleet from today and can be viewed online here.
The CAAS funding will promote the use of self-service in Changi Airport to improve the passenger experience.
Over the next four years, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore will be funding $15 million to push the introduction of self-service processes for passengers at Changi Airport.
The corporation will be funding grants of between $400,000 and $2.5 million to help pay for the cost of introducing processes such as check-in kiosks, bag drop systems and self-boarding gates. This money is part of the Fast and Seamless Travel (FAST) Fund and is triple the amount given to the Passenger Self Service Adoption Programme (PSAP), which launched in 2013.
PSAP helped to reduce the number of staff whilst improving the passenger experience and this latest push will aim to further improve that by using the latest technologies. It will work with the Changi Airport Group’s FAST initiative, which hopes to provide a full set of self-service programmes in airports. These drives could benefit up to 2,000 Passenger Service Agents (PSAs).
Lee Seow Hiang, Chief Executive Officer of CAG said: “The FAST Fund will accelerate the roll-out of our FAST@Changi initiative, which has gained steady traction with passengers as more airlines joined the FAST family over the past year.
“With the funding support and the increasing familiarity of travellers about self-service options, we invite more airlines to come on-board FAST@Changi to bring about an enhanced travel experience for their passengers.”
Source: Future Travel Experience
New Zealand remains underserved by airline capacity from around the word in spite of an influx of new services, according to Auckland Airport.
At a press conference marking Sunday’s inaugural United Airlines service between Auckland and San Francisco, Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood said the US market remained ‘underserved by about 30% even taking the new capacity into account’.
This follows an analysis entitled Growing Travel Markets, presented by the airport’s general manager, aeronautical commercial Norris Carter. It asserts the massive China market is underserved by 39%, Japan by 28% and South Korea by 53%. Even Australia is underserved by 32%, the report claims.
‘This is not a forecast, rather a modelled view of market possibilities which we’ve based on a mix of public and proprietary data,’ says Carter.
‘The modelling we’ve done indicates the US is a strong market for passenger growth. New Zealand is an attractive destination for US travellers. This is why we have seen United and American come on board, and we see room for further growth.’
Dave Hilfman, United’s senior vice president worldwide sales, says the airline is pleased with the early loadings it is seeing on the airline’s Auckland to San Francisco service. The carrier is confident enough to be increasing from three flights a week to daily from 30 October.
He says 70% to 75% of the traffic of the passengers on the service are United States point of sale.
‘That’s not surprising considering the size of the market but we are also seeing growth out of New Zealand.’
Kevin Bowler, chief executive of Tourism New Zealand, was not prepared to speak directly about the airports anaysis.
‘There’s no doubt though that we're seeing a high level of interest from new and existing airlines to add services, which supports the view that there is considerable potential for new capacity into New Zealand.’
Brent Thomas, commercial director at House of Travel, says that with significant growth in capacities trans-Tasman and in other market’s growth, outbound from New Zealand has definitely grown as well. ‘But not by those figures presented by Auckland Airport, so they are obviously talking inbound.’
However Thomas says extra capacity is welcomed by the trade and clients here. ‘Not only does it bring competitive pricing but also gives a choice of routes and more choice on the preferred travel times. That’s true even in the short-haul markets. If there is more capacity in peak times such as the coming school holidays, then that’s a boon for the customer.’
Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today announced a $35 million investment over four years for ‘Entrepreneurial Universities’, a new initiative to attract world-leading entrepreneurial researchers to New Zealand to further strengthen our universities and our broader fast-growing innovation ecosystem.
“Entrepreneurial Universities is all about attracting more of the world’s leading researchers and their teams to locate their labs here and base themselves in New Zealand,” Mr Joyce says. “We are especially wanting to recruit people with an established record in innovation and entrepreneurship in the top ‘maker’ disciplines, to help grow the pipeline of excellent innovative start-up companies in New Zealand, and train the next generation of scientific entrepreneurs.”
The Entrepreneurial Universities programme will involve the Government entering into a 50/50 partnership with individual universities to attract and support named researchers and their teams to work in the university for an initial period of three to five years.
“We will invite all the universities to bid for the opportunity, and expect up to 15-20 world-leading researchers and their teams to be brought to New Zealand over a three year period.”
The programme follows an approach to the Minister and the TEC earlier this year by the University of Auckland, and will be modelled on other similar programmes around the world including the US and the UK.
New Zealand’s universities already have a very good reputation for excellence with all eight universities ranked in the top three per cent in the world.
“However it’s a very competitive world out there, Mr Joyce says. “We need to keep challenging ourselves and keep adding to our hi-tech sector. Entrepreneurial Universities will strengthen our research and start-up capabilities and add to the learning opportunities for our undergraduates.
“The ‘Entrepreneurial Universities’ initiative is part of Budget 2016’s $761.4 million ‘Innovative New Zealand’ package and will complement big increases in the funds for researchers already based here in New Zealand.
“Across the Marsden Fund, the Endeavour Fund, the Catalyst Fund, the Health Research Council, and other associated investment mechanisms, the government is investing an extra $410 million over the next four years in New Zealand science. The Entrepreneurial Universities fund will add another dimension to that comprehensive investment.”
Entrepreneurial Universities is consistent with the National Statement of Science Investment, and is a key initiative in the Innovation stream of the Business Growth Agenda.
A Steven Joyce press release
ACC and WorkSafe New Zealand today launched the inaugural ‘Reducing Harm in New Zealand Workplaces Action Plan’. The Plan supports their collaborative efforts to meet the government’s target of reducing serious injuries and fatalities in the workplace by at least 25 percent by 2020.
“Our agencies are committed to working in partnership with industry to meet the government’s target and achieve positive health and safety outcomes for all New Zealanders” said ACC’s Chief Customer Officer, Sid Miller. “Partnering with industry gives us a more in-depth understanding of what causes harm and severe injury across all New Zealand workplaces, rather than just single problems in single sectors.”
WorkSafe’s CEO, Gordon MacDonald, said input from both agencies would ensure better outcomes. “What businesses want to see from WorkSafe and ACC is clear advice and a consistent, practical approach. That’s what the Plan will help us deliver – smart, targeted injury and harm prevention programmes based on the best available evidence.”
However government agencies cannot do it alone. Everyone has a role to play in keeping themselves, their co-workers and their working environment safe. “Good health and safety is about making sure we all take the right steps to keep ourselves and our workmates safe and healthy at work” said Mr MacDonald.
The ‘Reducing Harm in New Zealand Workplaces Action Plan’ is taking a new look at how, together, we can better support the agriculture, construction, forestry, manufacturing and health sectors to make significant improvements to keep their workers safe. The Plan also focuses on the most common causes of injury across all sectors – slips, trips and falls; working in and around vehicles; body stressing, and respiratory health risks. Underlying this is a new focus on fundamental changes that support health and safety culture, such as worker engagement and participation.
There are a number of programmes in the Plan already underway, including Safetree, Safer Farms and the Canterbury rebuild programme. Other programmes are in the development stage, which means we are engaging with stakeholders and gathering evidence and data to support interventions.
“Industry and business can have confidence that we’ve taken an evidence-based approach to severe injury and harm prevention; that what we are delivering for and with industry are agreed, targeted and smart approaches to tackling the causes of severe injury and harm” said Mr Miller.
“Businesses, workers and the public rightly expect government agencies to work together and the three-year Plan is a major step towards a smarter, more co-ordinated approach to keeping New Zealanders safe and healthy,” said Mr MacDonald.ACC and WorksafeBackground
Working together
By working together we will:
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Hawaiian Airlines has launched a new auction service, in partnership with Plusgrade, which allows passengers to bid for available First Class seats.
The service, which is called ‘Bid Up’, is designed to be simple to use for travellers and is available to those in the main cabin, who are flying between Hawaii and North America. Those eligible receive an email 10 days before the flight and if they win, they are contacted 48 hours before the flight is set to depart.
For the winners, they will be able to utilise some of the extra features in First Class such as Priority Baggage handling, access to the airline’s Premier Clubs, faster check-in and free access to a range of TV shows and films whilst in flight.
Miranda Scott, Managing Director – Travel Products for Hawaiian Airlines, said: “We’re extremely excited to introduce Bid Up to our guests. We understand travellers have different options when planning trips to Hawaii, which is why we’re committed to providing each guest with unique offerings and exceptional benefits.”
Source: Future Travel experience
Chinese airliners have been splashing out on new aircraft as they look to expand their passenger capacity.
China is expanding the its civil aviation infrastructure as part of its "Belt and Road Initiative", its plan to recreate the historic Silk Road trade route connecting it with Central Asia, Russia and Europe.
This year China claimed to have its largest participation in the Farnborough Airshow to date. The biannual airshow is an important showcasing event for the international aviation industry.
Among the announcements made by China Daily, a state run news agency, Kunming Airlines, a domestic carrier, is said to have signed an agreement with Boeing at the airshow to buy 10 new 737 Max passenger aircraft for an undisclosed sum.
Meanwhile Xiamen Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding with Boeing to buy 30 new Boeing 737 Max passenger planes estimated to be worth US$3.4bn.
Donghai Airlines, predominantly a freight company is also said by China Daily to have signaled its intent to buy 25 Boeing 737 Max aircraft and five Boeing Dreamliners, potentially worth $4bn, as it expands its passenger capacity.
"Under the Belt and Road Initiative, we will accelerate our fleet expansion plan to satisfy the rapidly growing air travel market and help build our home base at Shenzhen as the transportation hub for southern China," said Wong Cho-Bau, chairman of Donghai Airlines, in a statement.
The 737 Max is Boeing’s latest generation of aircraft due to go into commercial use next year. Boeing claim it is 8% more fuel efficient than its competition.
China Daily said China is hoping to build 300 new airports by 2020, roughly doubling its current capacity.
As well as aeroplane operators, a host of Chinese manufacturers were displaying wears at the airshow.
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), a state owned company, took 90 orders of its short range ARJ21 plane potentially worth $2.3bn.
Comac is currently developing China’s first medium-hall commercial airplane.
SourceL Supply Management
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* A grande dame of the Pacific gets a facelift.
Robot bag drop being trialled at Geneva Airport’s Terminal 1
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Emirates has launched the world’s first interactive amenity kit in Economy Class providing a more comfortable travel experience. The stylish new amenity kits utilise augmented reality (AR) technology to unlock immersive content on mobile devices.
The kit bags come in six designs inspired by six regions in Emirates’ global network – Australasia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Far East. The designs incorporate the colours and patterns of each of these regions and the Middle East design, in particular, features Arabic calligraphy by UAE-based artist, Tagelsir Hassan.
The kits include all the necessities for additional comfort on long-haul flights including an eye mask, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and socks - each tailored to the style of the kit bag. The multipurpose pouches are made of Neoprene material - a water resistant fabric - and is designed to be reused after the flight to store anything from devices to cosmetics or stationery.
Emirates is the first airline to introduce AR technology with the amenity kits making it the world’s first interactive kit bags. By downloading the Blippar mobile phone app, and using it to scan the bags, customers will be able to unlock a world of entertainment on their mobile devices. Emirates partnered with Blippar, the world’s leading AR and visual discovery platform, to create exclusive content including activities and health tips for a more comfortable and relaxing travel experience. The content will continually be refreshed every six months so customers can look forward to new updates.
More broadly, the Blippar app is a Visual Browser which enables customers to discover more about the world around them. Customers can point at thousands of objects already recognised by Blippar (laptops to clothing and food to pets) to get additional information on those items. The content explains the object, the context and other useful and interesting facts – and is sourced from Blippar’s knowledge graph called Blipparsphere. Both the Blippar app and Blipparsphere are powered through Artificial Intelligence technology.
The cutting edge bags are part of Emirates’ continued product enhancement to improve comfort and convenience for Economy Class passengers. The entertainment on the app complements Emirates’ award-wining inflight entertainment system – ice Digital Widescreen - which has recently clinched its 12th consecutive award for ‘World's Best Airline Inflight Entertainment’ at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2016. Passengers across all classes can enjoy over 2,500 channels of entertainment and free Wi-Fi on board all A380s and most B777s.The amenity kits are available on selected long-haul routes and on all ultra-long haul services starting from August.
To activate the augmented reality technology with the amenity kits:
1. Download the Blippar app from the Apple Store or Google Play on your mobile device 2. Scan the designs on the amenity kits 3. Enjoy immersive content on your mobile devices
An Emirates press release
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242