Author: Press Room

Dr Anna Breman has been named as the new Governor of the Reserve Bank. Breman had served as a deputy Governor of Sweden’s Riksbank – its central bank – since 2019.“Dr Breman comes to New Zealand with an impressive blend of technical skills and organisational leadership experience,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.Breman will be the first woman to hold the role. History-making appointment as Willis introduces central bank’s new governor – Watch on TVNZ+Breman holds a PhD in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, and had previously been a group chief economist at Swedbank. She has also worked at…

Published on 24/09/2025 – 13:20 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT EU member states diluted water rules — enabling up to ten times more chemical pollution arising from medicines to be permitted in groundwater compared with an original European Commission proposal — when the institutions finalised an update to the Water Framework Directive on Tuesday. Member states also downgraded a proposal to set a broad cap on the amount of pharmaceuticals acceptable in groundwater, narrowing the rules to cover specific substances and leaving others unregulated. The 2000 Water Framework Directive of groundwater, rivers and lakes, provides for supervision and monitoring of the ecology and…

Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced Dr Anna Breman as the new Governor of the Reserve Bank this afternoon.Breman will be the first woman to hold the role, and will start her five-year term on December 1.For a replay of Willis’ announcement, watch the video above.Today’s announcement came after a turbulent time at the central bank.In March, then Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr resigned. In June, it was reported his resignation was attributed to a “distressing” disagreement over the central bank’s funding.Also in June, Willis criticised the Reserve Bank over sharing information surrounding Orr’s resignation.By August, Reserve Bank board chair Neil…

ADVERTISEMENT The EU has lifted a halt on poultry imports from Brazil four months after they were stopped because of an avian flu outbreak.   The European Commission has begun gradually lifting the temporary restrictions on imports of poultry products from Brazil, an EU executive spokesperson confirmed to Euronews on Tuesday.   “Providing the epidemiological status remains stable, the second step, as from the 2 October, will be the lifting of restrictions on the state of Rio Grande do Sul (except the 10 km radius around the outbreak which will be finally re-opened by 16th October),” the spokesperson added.   Brazil has…

A driver stopped in west Auckland because officers recognised that he was forbidden to drive was found to have a loaded gun, cash and drugs in his car. Police uncovered a sizeable amount of methamphetamine. (Source: Supplied)Police initially signalled a 36-year-old man to stop early yesterday morning “because they knew he was forbidden to drive and breaching the conditions of his bail”, Inspector Kelly Farrant said.When they then began their search of the car they allegedly discovered the loaded sawn-off shotgun, meth and $5000 cash.The sawn-off shotgun. (Source: Supplied)The arrest was made by Henderson beat team members on Arawa St,…

ADVERTISEMENT A report showing the online prevalence of Kremlin-friendly narratives blaming Ukraine for this month’s incursion of drones into Polish airspace is being misrepresented as showing that Poles mainly hold Kyiv responsible for the incident. Analysts at Res Futura, a Polish NGO specialised in information security, gathered as many as 179,000 Polish social media posts and comments in the aftermath of the September incursion, and found that 38% of those comments blamed Ukraine while 34% blamed Russia. This, according to Res Futura, was driven by an “organised disinformation campaign” coordinated by pro-Russian accounts, aimed at sowing distrust in the Polish…

Kawerau is, once again, suffering from unpleasant odours — this time described as a chemical smell like burning rubber or plastic.People have reported having trouble breathing from the smell, which has haunted the town since Sunday and was continuing to disturb the community on Tuesday.Fingers have been pointed at people burning rubbish and the town’s industrial sector, but Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which has responded to the reports, said yesterday afternoon that it was still investigating.Compliance team leader Trudy Richards said, since Sunday, the council had received 26 calls to its 24/7 Pollution Hotline regarding strong, unpleasant odours.”The first…

ADVERTISEMENT Jens Eskelund, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, warned of a sharp rise in Chinese exports to Europe following Washington’s announcement of sweeping import tariffs in April.  “We have seen in the first half of the year how exports from China to North America have been declining. So I think you could perhaps term it a trade diversion, but I don’t think it’s the whole story,” he told Euronews in an interview on Tuesday. Eskelund pointed to three main drivers behind the export surge — the competitiveness of Chinese firms, a weaker currency, and strong state…

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has shrugged off being lowly-ranked by big business leaders and says he isn’t worried by chatter about his leadership. The Prime Minister and his Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, were ranked 15th and 13th respectively out of Cabinet ratings in the NZ Herald’s annual Mood of the Boardroom, released today.Luxon scored 2.96 while Willis scored 3.09 out of 5, where one would be “not impressive” while five was “very impressive”. Instead, top-ranking ministers included Erica Stanford, Winston Peters and Chris Bishop, who scored 4.38, 3.82 and 3.80, respectively.Responses from 150 chief executives and business leaders inform the…

Acclaimed Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and 1970s, has died, AFP reported Tuesday. She was 87.She starred in more than 100 films and made-for-television productions, but she was best known for embodying youthful purity in Federico Fellini’s 8½, in which she co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in 1963.Cardinale also won praise for her role as Angelica Sedara in Luchino Visconti’s award-winning screen adaption of the historical novel The Leopard that same year and a reformed prostitute in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West in…