The recession starts to bite as is already evidenced in the value of the kiwi dollar (see article dated 03/02/09) and the house prices (see article on 14/01/09).

In addition the national bank published a report this month. The highlights (or should I say the low lights) are;

A net 41 percent of businesses expect worse times over the year ahead. This is down 6 percentage points from the final read of 2008. Sentiment within the retail sector remains uniformly pessimistic with a whopping 52 percent expecting worse times ahead for their own business over the coming year. A net 29 percent expect fewer staff over the coming year, a 7 percentage point jump (deterioration) from the end of 2008. With the exception of construction, employment intentions are uniformly worse across all sectors and either at or close to historical lows. Likewise, investment intentions hit a new low, with a net 15 percent expecting to reduce investment over the coming year. These are key supply - side inputs that tell us the downturn has moved beyond firms seeing lower sales, with businesses now having to respond themselves via less productive capacity. That means less investment and fewer jobs. Views towards the unemployment rate have reached a historical high, with 87 percent expecting it to increase. Pricing intentions remain low, supporting continued expectations of interest rate cuts. One-year ahead inflation expectations have eased from 3.2 percent to 2.7 percent, a level not seen since mid-2004.

As already mentioned in previous Bloggs, we as immigration Advisers are required to be licenced as from 4 May 2009. This appears to be happening much slower than expected and the news item dated 18/02/09 - Migrant advisers slow in licensing gives you a good impression of that. Does this mean that the authorities have made it too difficult for all the current consultants to meet the standards? The future will determine that however I believe that a certain level of professionalism is required as immigration advisers have a definite responsibility and impact on the lives and futures of their clients. Here is hoping that the Immigration Service now also improves it workflows, systems and procedures  and  thus improving efficiencies and less anxiety with the clients.

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