Welcome to Today in Business - Powered by Spark for Business, an experimental AI podcast by the New Zealand Herald.
Each weekday, we bring you five stories, the best of the New Zealand Herald business journalism, summarised and delivered by an AI voice as an easily digestible recap.
It's Friday, August 15, 2025, and here are five stories you should know about.
Food prices rose 5 percent in the year to July 2025, up from 4.6 percent in June, Stats NZ reports. Grocery food led the increase, up 5.1 percent annually, driven by higher milk, butter, and cheese prices. Milk rose 16 percent to $4.70 for two litres, butter jumped 42.2 percent, and the price of cheese climbed 29.5 percent to $13.01 per kilogram. Meat, poultry, and fish rose 7.9 percent, fruit and vegetables 7.3 percent, and non-alcoholic drinks 4.4 percent. Rent rose 2.4 percent. Petrol prices fell 3.7 percent, diesel 7.2 percent. Stats NZ's Nicola Growden says all five food groups cost more than a year ago.
In other news, Suncorp New Zealand chief executive Jimmy Higgins says home insurance premiums rose 8.3 percent in the year to June, while IAG New Zealand's rose more than 10 percent. He says high post-disaster reinsurance costs drove increases, but the market has since adjusted. Higgins notes taxes and levies form a significant portion of premiums. Commercial insurance premiums fell, with Suncorp down 5.3 percent, as new underwriters entered the market. Motor insurance collections were flat or down. A year of relatively calm weather lifted profits, with Suncorp's insurance trading result up 95 percent and IAG's insurance profit up 33 percent.
Meanwhile, ASB has cut key home loan rates, matching rival banks. Its one-year fixed mortgage rate drops from 4.89 to 4.79 percent, with the two-year rate down 10 basis points to 4.89 percent, and the six-month rate down 17 basis points to 5.12 percent. All major banks now offer a one-year fixed rate of 4.79 percent. ASB's Adam Boyd says tens of thousands of customers will refix at lower rates in 2025. ASB is also reducing term deposit rates by 5 to 15 basis points. The changes come ahead of the Reserve Bank's next Official Cash Rate announcement, due on Wednesday.
In a separate development, Keith Taylor, founder of Rascals nappies, testified in the High Court over Zuru's $30 million buyout of his family's stake in 2020. Taylor says the sale was a "Hobson's choice", and claims a restraint clause preventing sales to Woolworths was introduced late in talks. He disputes Zuru's claims that business strategies and production methods were proprietary. Taylor settled with Zuru for $500 without admissions; his son Grant paid $1 million. Zuru seeks over $75 million in damages. The case, involving allegations of restraint breaches and confidential information sharing, is in its second of four scheduled weeks.
Finally, turning to media, Roy Morgan research shows subscription streaming viewership in New Zealand rose 7 percent between July 2024 and June 2025, surpassing pandemic levels. Netflix grew 4 percent to 2.3 million viewers. Prime Video surged 166 percent to 835,000, while Disney+ rose 48 percent to 1.06 million. The "other" category, including Apple TV+ and YouTube Premium, climbed 141 percent. Sky TV's streaming audience fell 0.6 percent to 1.28 million, with the previous year's numbers having been inflated by the absorption of Lightbox customers.
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