Monthly economic review: June 2015

Overview: The Monthly Economic Review is an overview of the New Zealand economy. It includes the latest data on New Zealand’s economic growth, unemployment, inflation, merchandise trade and balance of payments figures, along with certain financial data (such as the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate). The unemployment rate, economic growth and central bank interest rates for several of our main OECD trading partners are also included. Each publication highlights a specific topic of interest. The Monthly Economic Review is produced eleven times per year

Monthly economic review: December 2014

The Monthly Economic Review is an overview of the New Zealand economy. It includes the latest data on New Zealand’s economic growth, unemployment, inflation, merchandise trade and balance of payments figures, along with certain financial data (such as the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate). The unemployment rate, economic growth and central bank interest rates for several of our main OECD trading partners are also included. Each publication highlights a specific topic of interest. The Monthly Economic Review is produced eleven times per year. Latest data and events International dairy prices continue to fall, with the latest Fonterra Global Dairy Trade auction results reporting a further 1.1 percent fall in prices (on a trade weighted index basis). Dairy prices are now 50 percent lower than their peak in early February. Fonterra has stated that in order to keep their forecast payout at $5.30 per kilogram of milk solids, the average price for whole milk powder needs to recover to around US$3,500 per tonne by next March. In the latest auction, the average whole milk powder price was US$2,229 per tonne. Annual net immigration continues to rise, reaching 47,684 in the year ended October 2014, an increase of 30,194 from a year earlier. Approximately half of the increase was due to a reduction in the number of permanent and long-term departures, and the other half was due to an increase in the number of permanent and long-term arrivals. The net number of people leaving to live in Australia fell by 18,182 during the year to 5,311, predominantly due to a reduction in the number of permanent and long term departures to Australia. Oil prices have fallen over recent months, resulting in lower petrol prices. The Brent Oil price at the time of writing was US$69.26 per barrel, down from US$115 per barrel in June. Despite the fall in oil prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided in November to keep production at current levels. The price of 91-unleaded petrol in New Zealand was$2.03 per litre in early December, compared with $2.12 in the September quarter. All 14 regions recorded a rise in economic activity in the September quarter according to the ANZ Regional Trends publication. Growth in the Otago region expanded by 2.2 percent in the quarter, while at the other end of the spectrum, economic activity in the Bay of Plenty region expanded by 0.4 percent in the quarter

Monthly economic review: August 2014

Summary: The Monthly Economic Review is an overview of the New Zealand economy. It includes the latest data on New Zealand’s economic growth, unemployment, inflation, merchandise trade and balance of payments figures, along with certain financial data (such as the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate). The unemployment rate, economic growth and central bank interest rates for several of our main OECD trading partners are also included. Each publication highlights a specific topic of interest. The Monthly Economic Review is produced eleven times per year

Monthly economic review: September 2015

Latest data and events Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler cut the official cash rate (OCR) by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent on 10 September, returning the OCR to April 2014 levels. The Bank’s 90-day bank bill rate projections point towards a further cut in the OCR, with the ASB Bank expecting another rate cut in October. The BNZ thinks there is a 65 percent chance of a rate cut in October. The ANZ Bank believes that the Reserve Bank is not in a hurry to cut again, while Westpac Bank reckons an October cut is “a close call”. Regional economic activity rose by 0.3 percent in the June quarter according to ANZ Regional Trends, with economic activity increasing in the North Island but falling in the South Island. The Northland region experienced a rise in economic activity of 1.6 percent, while the Southland and Taranaki regions contracted by 1.6 percent over the quarter. New Zealand’s merchandise terms of trade rose unexpectedly in the June quarter, up 1.3 percent. Over the quarter, exported goods prices rose by 2.1 percent while imported goods prices rose by 0.7 percent. Dairy product prices rose by six percent, reflecting the higher prices experienced earlier in the year. A bank economist noted that trade data reflects auction price data after about a three month lag. &nbsp

Monthly economic review: August 2015

Includes the latest data on New Zealand’s economic growth, unemployment, inflation, merchandise trade and balance of payments figures, along with certain financial data (such as the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate). The unemployment rate, economic growth and central bank interest rates for several of our main OECD trading partners are also included. Each publication highlights a specific topic of interest. The Monthly Economic Review is produced eleven times per year

Monthly economic review: November 2014

Overview: The Monthly Economic Review is an overview of the New Zealand economy. It includes the latest data on New Zealand’s economic growth, unemployment, inflation, merchandise trade and balance of payments figures, along with certain financial data (such as the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate). The unemployment rate, economic growth and central bank interest rates for several of our main OECD trading partners are also included. Each publication highlights a specific topic of interest. The Monthly Economic Review is produced eleven times per year

Monthly economic review: July 2014

Overview: The Monthly Economic Review is an overview of the New Zealand economy. It includes the latest data on New Zealand’s economic growth, unemployment, inflation, merchandise trade and balance of payments figures, along with certain financial data (such as the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate). The unemployment rate, economic growth and central bank interest rates for several of our main OECD trading partners are also included. Each publication highlights a specific topic of interest. The Monthly Economic Review is produced eleven times per year

A comparative developmental approach to multimodal communication in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Studying how communication of our closest relatives, the great-apes, develops can inform our understanding of the socio-ecological drivers shaping language evolution. However, despite a now recognized ability of great apes to produce multimodal signal combinations, a key feature of human language, we lack knowledge about when or how this ability manifests throughout ontogeny. In this thesis, I aimed to address this issue by examining the development of multimodal signal combinations (also referred to as multimodal combinations) in chimpanzees. To establish an ontogenetic trajectory of combinatorial signalling, my first empirical study examined age and context related variation in the production of multimodal combinations in relation to unimodal signals. Results showed that older individuals used multimodal combinations at significantly higher frequencies than younger individuals although the unimodal signalling remained dominant. In addition, I found a strong influence of playful and aggressive contexts on multimodal communication, supporting previous suggestions that combinations function to disambiguate messages in high-stakes interactions. Subsequently, I looked at influences in the social environment which may contribute to patterns of communication development. I turned first to the mother-infant relationship which characterises early infancy before moving onto interactive behaviour in the wider social environment and the role of multimodal combinations in communicative interactions. Results indicate that mothers support the development of communicative signalling in their infants, transitioning from more action-based to signalling behaviours with infant age. Furthermore, mothers responded more to communicative signals than physical actions overall, which may help young chimpanzees develop effective communication skills. Within the wider community, I found that interacting with a wider number of individuals positively influenced multimodal combination production. Moreover, in contrast to the literature surrounding unimodal signals, these multimodal signals appeared highly contextually specific. Finally, I found that within communicative interactions, young chimpanzees showed increasing awareness of recipient visual orientation with age, producing multimodal combinations most often when the holistic signal could be received. Moreover, multimodal combinations were more effective in soliciting recipient responses and satisfactory interactional outcomes irrespective of age. Overall, these findings highlight the relevance of studying ape communication development from a multimodal perspective and provide new evidence of developmental patterns that echo those seen in humans, while simultaneously highlighting important species differences. Multimodal communication development appears to be influenced by varying socio-environmental factors including the context and patterns of communicative interaction

Multimodal communication development in semiwild chimpanzees

Human language is characterized by the integration of multiple signal modalities, including speech, facial and gestural signals. While language likely has deep evolutionary roots that are shared with some of our closest living relatives, studies of great ape communication have largely focused on each modality separately, thus hindering insights into the origins of its multimodal nature. Studying when multimodal signals emerge during great ape ontogeny can inform about both the proximate and ultimate mechanisms underlying their communication systems, shedding light on potential evolutionary continuity between humans and other apes. To this end, the current study investigated developmental patterns of multimodal signal production by 28 semiwild chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, ranging in age from infancy to early adolescence. We examined the production of facial expressions, gestures and vocalizations across a range of behavioural contexts, both when produced separately and as part of multimodal signal combinations (henceforth multimodal). Overall, we found that while unimodal signals were produced consistently more often than multimodal combinations across all ages and contexts, the frequency of multimodal combinations increased significantly in older individuals and most within the aggression and play contexts, where the costs of signalling ambiguity may be higher. Furthermore, older individuals were more likely to produce a multimodal than a unimodal signal and, again, especially in aggressive contexts. Variation in production of individual signal modalities across ages and contexts are also presented and discussed. Overall, evidence that multimodality increases with age in chimpanzees is consistent with patterns of developing communicative complexity in human infancy, revealing apparent evolutionary continuity. Findings from this study contribute novel insights into the evolution and development of multimodality and highlight the importance of adopting a multimodal approach in the comparative study of primate communication

The FGF receptor uses the endocannabinoid signaling system to couple to an axonal growth response

Akey role for DAG lipase activity in the control of axonal growth and guidance in vitro and in vivo has been established. For example, DAG lipase activity is required for FGF-stimulated calcium influx into neuronal growth cones, and this response is both necessary and sufficient for an axonal growth response. The mechanism that couples the hydrolysis of DAG to the calcium response is not known. The initial hydrolysis of DAG at the sn-1 position (by DAG lipase) will generate 2-arachidonylglycerol, and this molecule is well established as an endogenous cannabinoid receptor agonist in the brain. In the present paper, we show that in rat cerebellar granule neurons, CB1 cannabinoid receptor antagonists inhibit axonal growth responses stimulated by N-cadherin and FGF2. Furthermore, three CB1 receptor agonists mimic the N-cadherin/FGF2 response at a step downstream from FGF receptor activation, but upstream from calcium influx into cells. In contrast, we could find no evidence for the CB1 receptor coupling the TrkB neurotrophin receptor to an axonal growth response in the same neurons. The observation that the CB1 receptor can couple the activated FGF receptor to an axonal growth response raises novel therapeutic opportunities