A Marlborough farmer wants Fonterra to stop investment spending and cut staff salaries until milk prices improve.

World dairy prices showed signs of levelling off today with the GlobalDairyTrade price index gaining 1.4 per cent at the fortnightly auction.

Tightening conditions on global commodity markets have come as no surprise to small to medium-sized agribusiness enterprises, according to an MYOB survey.

The Reserve Bank has released an animated educational video explaining the functions of money in New Zealand.

Ngai Tahu Holdings is looking for large investment opportunities around the country to broaden its business after making a record profit.

Agri-tech company Tru-Test Corporation has completed a $10 million share buyback while the stake of major shareholder KTT has been boosted from 21.7 per cent to 39.6 per cent.

Hopes of a more stable world dairy market were dashed yesterday when GlobalDairyTrade auction prices resumed their downward slide.

World prices for a basket of New Zealand's export commodities fell 1.3 per cent last month, with dairy products once more leading the decline.

New Zealand commodity prices fell for a seventh consecutive month to an 18-month low in September, led by declining dairy prices.

Farmers are preparing for an austere 2014/15 season after a major drop in prices at last night's GlobalDairyTrade auction, says Federated Farmers boss.

NZX is offering a new service for the dairy industry to forecast local milk production and calculate milk prices.

The NZ dollar edged up following its dramatic slump yesterday after the Reserve Bank confirmed speculation it intervened in the currency market.

The New Zealand dollar dropped against the greenback yesterday afternoon after the Reserve Bank released data which confirmed that it had put its money where its mouth was last month, selling $521 million in a bid to push the exchange rate lower.

The NZ dollar dropped to a 13-month low today after figures confirmed the Reserve Bank intervened in foreign exchange markets last month in a bid to bring it down.

Dairy farmers face a year of serious belt-tightening if Fonterra's latest milkprice forecast of $5.30 per kg of milksolids comes to pass, agricultural commentators said.

New Zealand posted a narrower trade deficit in August as exports of live animals and dairy products rise and imports from major trading partners declined.

Fonterra has just announced a cut to its forecast farmer payout - from $5.30 a kg of milksolids - down from $6.00.

New Zealand rural confidence levels have fallen to a two-year low thanks to plunging dairy prices, according to Rabobank's latest quarterly rural confidence survey.

Single desk seller Zespri says the kiwifruit industry is looking like putting on a growth spurt after the Psa virus cut a swathe through the country's most productive areas from 2010 through to 2013.

The gap between what New Zealand earns from the rest of the world through trade and investment and what it pays widened in the June quarter as falling dairy exports started to weigh on the trade balance.

NZ's current account deficit rose by $1.4b in the past three months reflecting falling dairy prices and a large revision to investment flows into the country.

Former Fonterra boss Andrew Ferrier has been appointed chairman of New Zealand software developer Orion Health

Economists have cut their forecasts of economic growth in the current year, the latest quarterly survey conducted by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research has found.