The lowest number of monthly sales since 1992 has been recorded by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ). The January sales figures of the institute display that just 3,706 homes were sold nationwide as compared with 5,186 in January last year.

According to REINZ president Mike Elford, the low turnover is a concern, and the benefit of lower interest rates is yet to make its mark.

In his statement, Elford said, "Its clear evidence that people are treading cautiously and reflects the uncertainty of the wider economic environment."

According to Statistics New Zealand's latest food price index fruits and vegetables are getting increasingly expensive even though the global recession saw a widespread fall in the prices of the commodities.

For the whole year there was an overall increase of 9.5% in the prices by the end of January 2009 and for the month of January it was a 0.8% increase. In January itself the prices of fruit and vegetables rose by 3.6% with the prices of tomatoes going by almost 50% of its price in December, kiwifruit being 48.2% higher and mandarins higher by
37.3%.

Appreciating the Government's announcement to go ahead of its $500 million infrastructure projects at an accelerated pace in addition to the $480 million business package, Shamubeel Eaqub, economist and research director of Goldman Sachs JBWere's Australia and New Zealand, said, "While small in the context of annual GDP
($180 billion) these are positive and encouraging steps to counter the recession and bolster the aggressive easing delivered by the RBNZ to date."