NZ’s economic recovery is still very patchy: some sectors are quite confident, in others companies are stretched. Many are running into credit difficulties as the banking sector tightens up. The high degree of uncertainty is leaving companies unwilling to invest or hire. Construction and manufacturing have yet to turn around from the downward trend. Fishing, forestry and mining have been more buoyant. Govt revenue has fallen as corporate profitability dropped sharply. The Crown is still having to borrow at the rate of $240m a week. Fortunately for NZ, international credit rating agencies have been focusing on financial basket-cases like Greece, and trying to work out new ratings for countries they have previously never had to worry about such as the UK.

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