Data released by UMR Research on people’s news habits shows how closely they have followed a particular story line.

Nearly half of all KiwiSaver members wrongly think they have a government guarantee, according to a new survey that raises further concerns about the safety of investors.

The UMR Research survey of 750 people found worrying gaps in many people’s KiwiSaver knowledge.

Slightly more than one third (34%) of the people surveyed said they were KiwiSaver members.

When asked if the KiwiSaver fund they had invested in had a government guarantee, only 15% correctly answered that there was no guarantee while 48% thought their fund was guaranteed and 37% were unsure.

New Zealanders are increasingly confident that the country has survived the worst impact of the global economic downturn, according to a new UMR Research survey.

The telephone survey, carried out late last month, found that while 72% of respondents were concerned about the impact of the global recession on the New Zealand economy in June, that figure had now fallen to 61%.

This is the lowest level of concern since October last year, according to UMR executive director Tim Grafton.

New Zealand is a very young country by world standards, and like most adolescents is conflicted.

Developers are convinced New Zealand needs to intensify development within  existing cities to get the national economy moving but passionate heritage and community groups are often anti-intensificaiton and vocal about their desire to keep suburbs unaffected.