A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; house prices up, used car sales surge, deficit lower, poll support jumps

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

HOUSE PRICES RISE AGAIN
QV says house prices rose in May, but annual growth slowed  to 8.2% from 8.4%. Average prices have edged up to $471.800 and Auckland prices were up 13.1%.

USED IMPORTS SURGE
We are buying cars at a very fast rate, the latest data shows.

COST CONTROL
Treasury reported today a lower-than-forecast government deficit as departmental under-spending and bigger ACC surplus more than offset lower-than-forecast GST receipts.

RUBBER STAMPED

Insurance Australia Group's takeover of Lumley has cleared its final New Zealand regulatory hurdle with the Reserve Bank granting its approval.

POLITICAL POLL SURPRISE
The latest Roy Morgan political poll have some parties with surprising support levels, despite the Government suffering some rough parliamentary blows. The 'family friendly' budget glow is proving more connected than the parliamentary sparing.

BODY CORPORATES AND GST
The Government has announced it will change the rules so that bodies corporate will not be required to register for GST and file returns, making their treatment consistent to other residential property owners.

MIGHTY RIVER SEEKS UP TO $300M IN CAPITAL BOND OFFER

SOE Mighty River Power has confirmed it'll go ahead with a $250 million offer of unsecured, subordinated capital bonds. It's also offering up to another $50 million worth through oversubscriptions. The bonds are expected to be listed on the NZX debt market and have a BB+, speculative or junk, credit rating from Standard & Poor’s. The Minimum Interest Rate for the first five years is expected to be in the range of 6.8% to 7.0%.

Mighty River Power says money raised will be used for general corporate purposes, including the repayment of bank debt and extending the average term of Mighty River Power’s funding profile. The bonds have a maturity date of July 11, 2044 but can be redeemed from July 11, 2019 or potentially even earlier under certain circumstances. Standard & Poor’s is expected to assign intermediate equity content to the bonds, treating 50% of the principal and interest as equity for credit rating purposes  for up to 10 years.

WHOLESALE RATES
Wholesale swap rates were pretty much unchanged today, but the 90 day bank bill rate lost all its last few day gains and was 2 bps lower and is now at 3.42%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar rose sharply overnight but has level-pegged during today. Late this afternoon, the USD is at 84.9 USc, the Aussie is now at 91.0 AUc. The TWI is at 79.2.