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 latest Statistics New Zealand figures, the population of New Zealand has reached 4.29 million. There was an increase in the population by just over 39,000 or
0.9% last year compared with more than 41,000, or 1%, in 2007.

Since there was a fall in net migration, the growth in population was lower in 2008 than in 2007.

Today morning, power lines fell on nearly 20 suburban Auckland houses. However, no causalities were reported and all the residents have been safely evacuated from their homes. Some of the terrified residents had been trapped for hours.

As of now, the inspectors from Transpower were at the scene trying to clear away the broken 200,000 volt line which lies sprawled across homes, gardens and road.

"The cause of this morning's line plunge was still under investigation," said Transpower spokeswoman Adele Fitzpatrick.

Telecom's second quarter results are expected to post a 30% fall, after tax, and would not be a surprise as it is within the market predictions, a net profit of $121 million is expected.

According to ABN Amro Craigs broker, Peter, the share price of Telecom is not likely slide. Mr. Peter said, "Telecom will be reporting `Ferrit free', displaying some retail revival and mobile survival, which were all key messages from its first AGM under its new Chief Executive, Paul Reynolds."

Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Europe's largest oil company, third-biggest shareholder after BP and Mobil, has under taken a review of its investments in New Zealand and its 
17% stake in the nation's only refinery at Marsden Point. 

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%.