News Round Up

New Zealanders Quick to Get Sorted
The Office of the Retirement Commissioner says its new website, www.sorted.org.nz, has been a big hit with the public already.

The site, which was launched two weeks ago, recorded more than 17,000 visitor sessions in its first week.

"This is a fabulous level of interest in such a short time," Public Education manager Liz Read says.

"Clearly the personalisation and interactivity the site offers to help people get sorted on everyday money matters is really capturing people's interest." She says.

"The site's 10 interactive calculators have been used to do more than 40,000 calculations. The Get-Out-of-Debt calculator is proving the most popular, attributing for over a third of all calculator usage."

The Sorted programme is designed to help New Zealanders with financial planning skills and information for life.

The programme marks a shift in direction for the ORC away from financial planning for retirement per se, to focus on helping people of all ages get sorted on money matters.

Kiwi Bonds drop
All Kiwi Bond interest rates are to be decreased October 12, the Debt Management Office says.

The six-month and four-year maturities are to be decreased by 0.50%. The one year and two year maturities will be decreased by 0.75%.

Kiwi Bond interest rates are set periodically from the moving averages of domestic wholesale rates. These changes have been made in response to recent changes in wholesale market interest rates.

The new rates are as follows:

For $5,000 - $250,000: 6 months 4.75%, 1 year 4.75%, 2 years 5.00%, 4 years 5.50%

For $1,000 - $4,900: 6 months 4.25%, 1 year 4.25%, 2 years 4.50%, 4 years 5.00%.

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