The hot dry summer in the North Island is helping to push world dairy prices up - but the high kiwi dollar is taking the cream off the top.

In the fifth straight gain, prices in the latest world dairy auction rose 3.1 per cent overnight, takings prices to their highest level in five months.

Rakon's share price dropped by nearly 24pc to an all-time low today after the high-tech components maker cut its earnings guidance for the second time since December.

The Economist's Big Mac Index finds New Zealand's stubbornly high dollar is marginally undervalued against the greenback.

A New Zealand exporter selling infant formula in China says the latest agricultural chemical issue is a public relations disaster and sales have fallen "to zero".

Demand for New Zealand dairy livestock in China appears to be booming, with more than 38,000 live animals leaving our shores for Chinese pastures last year.

The world's economic recovery remains stalled five years after the global financial crisis and is likely to remain that way until 2017, international credit reporting agency Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) said.

Kiwis have been imbibing it since 1987, but the boss of Kiwi herbal mineral water brand Ch'i says the firm still has plenty of scope for growth.

New Zealand's largely small and medium-scale businesses are the key to driving the export growth we need to sustain employment.

A whiff of lollies in the breeze - with a trace of gravy - is the sweet smell of success for a South Auckland factory providing steady jobs and export earnings.

And so this is Christmas, and what have you done, New Zealand business?

World dairy prices have risen in the last online auction of the year.

The New Zealand dollar hit a four-year high against the Japanese yen yesterday, prompting concern from local exporters whose returns are getting eroded..

NZX-listed fishing firm Sanford says its attendance at a major Chinese trade show hooked the company a number of new customers.

TPPA negotiations in Auckland comes to an end the New Zealand public has still not been told what is being discussed behind closed doors.