"The growing deterioration in New Zealand's external accounts virtually guarantees a credit downgrade post-election," Labour finance spokesperson Michael Cullen said today.

Dr Cullen was responding to the June balance of payments figures showing a $566 million increase in the current account deficit between the March and June quarters. The results reflected continued sluggishness in the export sector and strong import growth, especially in cars and consumption goods.

"The rating agencies have long been concerned about New Zealand's weak external position. There is little in this data to appease those concerns. Instead the evidence is of an unbalanced and uneven recovery," Dr Cullen said.

"What is needed is a stategy to relieve the economy's dependence on commodity production. Labour will provide this leadership through policies such as our industry assistance policy.

"Among other initiatives, this will include better resourcing for TradeNZ and the development of an export credit guarantee scheme. New Zealand is one of the very few major trading countries without such a facility," Dr Cullen said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>