NZ has not escaped global economic woes and faces significant headwinds over the next quarter, according to the BusinessNZ Planning Forecast. Most international forecasting agencies have downgraded global growth expectations for this year, and NZ is also headed into a period of slower economic growth, with geopolitical risk and supply chain disruptions driving investment uncertainty and inflation - a period when a greater emphasis on reducing regulatory risks and improving the quality and targeting of Government spending is required, the Forecast says.

NZ’s new trade agreement with the EU has not produced commercially meaningful results for our meat and dairy exporters, says BusinessNZ’s Catherine Beard. "Horticulture, wine, honey and seafood exporters will be pleased, and services exporters will celebrate gaining a level playing field with other countries’ services exports to the EU, but the FTA’s approach to meat and dairy imports from NZ makes it less than a high quality comprehensive free trade agreement."

Fair Pay Agreements may not be consistent with human rights under NZ law, according to leading human rights expert Dr Andrew Butler. In an opinion on the Fair Pay Agreements Bill currently before the House, Dr Butler concluded some features of the Bill were unlikely to be consistent with the right to freedom of association under the NZ Bill of Rights Act. BusinessNZ agrees that compelling employers to the bargaining table under FPA rules is not consistent with the right to freedom of association, and says the FPA Bill needs revision to ensure it is consistent with NZ law.

Business owners and key executives are invited to take the Global Competitiveness Survey run by BusinessNZ and the World Economic Forum. The survey gathers data on factors affecting business and the economy, and compares all countries’ competitiveness. In the last survey NZ was ranked 19th most competitive country in the world. To help determine NZ’s competitiveness ranking in 2022, please take the survey here.