MP says cost to Kiwis unacceptable as Fonterra, supermarkets point finger at one another.

Prime Minister John Key says overseas markets are causing high prices for milk at home.

For the month of May, New Zealand had a trade surplus of $350 million, beating expectations for a $100 million deficit.

New Zealand farmer confidence slumped to the lowest level in a decade in the second quarter as dairy farmers turned gloomy.

The TPP trade pact does not yet include an acceptable deal on access for NZ's most important exports, dairy products, with little more than a month to go before the controversial 12- nation trade deal could be concluded.

Rabobank has pushed out its forecasts for a sustained upturn in the dairy market by three months until the first-half of 2016.

A2 Milk Co, the dual-listed milk marketing company, has received an expression of interest from two associated trade parties keen on taking over the company.

A second interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank next month is now a done deal and a third is increasingly on the cards before the year is out.

The Government has decided to allow the sale of raw milk to consumers, subject to farmers meeting certain requirements.

New Zealand earned $8.6 billion less from the rest of the world through trade and investment in the year to March than the rest of the world earned from us.

Dairy prices eased at the latest GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) auction but the sale gave away little on where the market, and interest rates, will go in the months ahead.

Dairy farm prices eased in the three months to May according to REINZ's latest rural report.

Dairy prices slipped again at this morning's GlobalDairyTrade auction, the GDT price index falling by 1.3 per cent.

Fonterra has once again successfully tapped into the so-called dim sum bond market in Hong Kong by this week raising 1 billion renminbi ($230 million) through a five-year bond.

Economists expect the pace of economic growth to have slowed when the March quarter national accounts are released on Thursday.

The fire's stoked, the Conclave's met, the white smoke has belched: Auckland University has pontificated what we must do next, writes Rodney Hide.

There have been good crowds reported at this year's Fieldays event near Hamilton.

Fonterra chairman John Wilson says he knows farmers are increasingly anxious about low farm-gate milk prices.

Media were told that hundreds of Fonterra jobs were to be axed, hours before staff heard the news.

Bill English says that while the dairy industry was an important one, it was not necessarily as big as many thought.

A national programme to address rural depression will be developed in recognition of challenging times for farmers including volatility in milk prices.

Fonterra management had no choice but to restructure, writes Liam Dann. But it is cosmetic surgery for a patient that requires much more fundamental medical attention.

Highly-paid head office managers are expected to be in Fonterra's sights as it slashes hundreds of administrative jobs to cope with falling global milk prices.

Market analysts and dairy industry players say Fonterra needs to improve its performance and while job cuts are unfortunate, big changes are required.

Fonterra says it will lay off hundreds of its 1500 head office staff in a major review following the decline in dairy prices.

AgriHQ forecasts increased milk production and a higher forecast payout to dairy farmers will bolster the economy.