Follow-on to S&P credit warning

I'm not quite sure quite how to describe this!! 

Key shrugs off credit warning

New Zealand Herald

12:43 PM Tuesday Aug 9, 2011

Prime Minister John Key and his Finance Minister Bill English continue to brush aside ratings agency Standard & Poor's warning New Zealand is among the countries particularly vulnerable to the fallout from the current market meltdown.

For article GO HERE


Meanwhile...

Tourism drops 6.5 per cent

Disruptive events such as the Christchurch earthquake and Chilean ash cloud have not caused as large a fall in tourism spending as might have been feared, the Ministry of Economic Development says.

Spending by international visitors dropped by 6.5 per cent to $5.6 billion in the year to June, says the International Visitors Survey, the first to fully cover the Christchurch quakes and the Chilean volcano ash cloud.

Ministry of Economic Development tourism research and evaluation manager Peter Ellis said the drop in spending was consistent with the previous survey, which covered the year to March.

Spending by Japanese, British and United States tourists dropped by 24.4 per cent, 18.4 per cent and 13.9 per cent respectively.

To see article GO HERE