Best of Business

The US Central Bank has raised interest rates for the first time in three years.
It's moving from a range of 3.5 to 3.75 percent, to 3.75 to 4 percent.
Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds unpacked the market reactions - and offered a theory on why things stayed calm.
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Supermarket owners all over the country have raised concerns over National's election promise to split up Foodstuffs.
The party wants to create a third player by separating Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square, subject to Commerce Commission agreement.
New World owner-operator Eric Rush says he's been working in this business for 16 years and putting 'long, hard' hours in - and he's raised doubts over this campaign promise.
"That just goes to show that they have no understanding of actually how it works. We'll find a way if we have to, but it's not going to be the same."
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Economic growth has slowed, with New Zealand getting through the fuel crisis better than feared.
Stats NZ data shows GDP rose 0.2 percent in the June quarter, and annual growth reached a two-year high on 1.7 percent.
Many economists were forecasting a contraction when fuel prices started spiking in March.
BNZ Research Head, Stephen Toplis, says our growth's great, in the circumstances.
"We knew the country was under the cost during that period, largely because of rapidly rising oil prices - and it was struggling. But at least it was struggling with the positive sign in front of it."
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New Zealand is outperforming other countries in annual economic growth, but appears to have been hit harder by fuel hikes.
Stats NZ data shows GDP rose 1.7 percent in the year to June - the highest rate in more than two years.
Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says achieving growth amid the ongoing Iran war is a good result - with many key business sectors adding to these results.
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Blowback from a business advocate on National's plan to break up Foodstuffs.
If elected, and if the Commerce Commission agrees, the party would separate Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square to create more competition.
But Foodstuffs warns there'd be significant implications and would affect more than 500 locally owned and operated stores.
Business NZ Director of Advocacy Catherine Beard told Ryan Bridge threatening to split up private property is hugely alarming.
She says it sends a terrible signal to overseas investors – that the government could essentially take away business.
Beard also says there's a lack of evidence to suggest our food is more expensive than other countries.
She told Bridge that while food prices have gone up, they're no higher than Australia and the UK.
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