Keri Welham

Cheaper shoes, more bang for your buck on overseas holidays, cut-price plasma televisions – or jobless. What does the high dollar mean for you?

The latest high, over US81 cents yesterday, was bad news for the export sector. It means those earning their money overseas are getting less for those United States dollars, euros or pounds when they are converted back into New Zealand dollars. Economic analyst Infometrics warns that there could be job losses in the export sector. Businesses have already been taking their manufacturing arms to countries with lower production costs. Infometrics economist Chris Worthington said that if the dollar's rise continued, or held for many months, the decreased value for international visitors would start to erode the tourism sector. This also could lead to job losses.

But with 3.8 per cent unemployment, Mr Worthington said there was no concern about a surge in the number of jobless. Employers were still struggling to find skilled and unskilled staff and any job losses would undoubtedly be absorbed by the hungry employment market. He said as long as the dollar was high, the winners would continue to be consumers. International travel was increasingly good value, as evidenced by the 208,000 Kiwis who travelled abroad on short trips last month. Kiwis' travelling internationally was a double whammy for domestic tourism, which was already seeing the effects of tourists spending less.

If the dollar remained high, fewer foreign tourists would choose New Zealand. Kiwis who chose to holiday at home might eventually benefit from discounts as the sector grew desperate. Motor vehicle dealers were reluctant to discount – even though their costs would be falling – but Infometrics said there would be fat built into prices which could enable dealers to offer good discounts. The strong dollar also gave some protection against petrol price rises. Though oil was trading at roughly the same price as a year ago, a stronger dollar had more buying power. Meanwhile, the price of hi-tech goods such as stereos, plasma televisions and cellphones would continue to fall. This was partly due to the dollar and partly due to the fast pace of the industry, in which the proliferation of new products meant older models were sold off at huge discount.

Mr Worthington said that if consumers were impatient for prices to fall they could use the Internet to buy goods in American dollar prices.

Nikki Jordan's stove, carpet and lino are staying put.

Forlong's Furnishings managing director Ivan Forlong today said he would write off the $2700 hire purchase debt owing on chattels in Mrs Jordan's Raglan home, and that he was sorry.

The previous owner of Mrs Jordan's home had defaulted on hire purchase payments and was bankrupt and therefore unable to settle the debt.

Forlong's had been demanding a $1000 payout for the goods under threat of repossession, but Mr Forlong said his heart told him to write off the debt.

"We should have been claiming from the person who (incurred) the debt, not the next person."

Mr Forlong said he had not known about the problem until he read it in Tuesday's Waikato Times. Mr Forlong said he had not been involved in the day-to-day running of the business for a number of years and did not realise staff had been chasing the new owner in situations such as this. He has changed the policy so Forlong's will only pursue the person who incurred the debt.

"We didn't want to upset people so we cleared the matter up so we could have a pleasant night's sleep. If we've upset anyone, we're sorry."

Mrs Jordan said the decision was a relief.

She was expecting to have to buy a new stove, carpet and lino this month, but instead she was celebrating a victory for "the little people".

"Although legally Forlong's was in the right, sometimes morals override the law."

She said she was considering lobbying MPs to make changes to the Hire Purchase Act so chattels not fully paid for would have to be listed.