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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; Resimac changes home loan rates, education industry grows, Croxley slims, Tower gets RBNZ tick, Westpac says fix

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; Resimac changes home loan rates, education industry grows, Croxley slims, Tower gets RBNZ tick, Westpac says fix
For Friday, August 22, 2014. <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</a>

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
RESIMAC has changed rates today. For its Prime <80% LVR offers, it has increased its one year rate by +29 bps to 6.35%, increased its two year rate by +20 bps to 6.58%, and decreased its 3, 4 and five year rates by -5 bps, -33 bps and -42 bps. That means it is offering five year fixed home loan rates at 6.94%.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There have been no savings or term deposit rate changes today.

A GROWING INDUSTRY
Our international education industry has seen its strongest January to April enrollment period on record with an 8% increase. That's an additional 5,100 international student enrollments on the same period last year. More than 20,000 international students are now enrolled at our universities, another almost 10,000 at polytechs, more than 26,000 at PTEs, and almost another 10,000 at secondary schools. 60% of them are in Auckland.

ELECTRONICS CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM
Iconic stationery supplier, Croxley Stationery, today announced that it will ceasing manufacturing at its Avondale factory from next year. It is likely 100 jobs will be lost. The same forces that are shrinking NZPost are affecting Croxley.

QUAKE CAPITAL RELEASED
The RBNZ as insurance regulator has completed its annual solvency review of insurer Tower and confirmed a $30 million reduction in the funds required to be held as part of its additional Minimum Solvency Margin requirement. This is because of progress in working through its Canterbury claims liabilities.

FIX NOW
If you haven't fixed your mortgage by now, Westpac's chief economist is advising you do it soon. More than two thirds of home loan borrowers already have.

WHOLESALE RATES
Swap rates lost almost all they rose by yesterday, down -1, -2 and -3 bps in a flattening bias. The 90 day bank bill rate avoided yawing and is still unchanged at 3.69%.

OUR CURRENCY
Check our real-time charts here. The NZ dollar fell marginally over the past 24 hours. It is now at 84.0 USc. It is at 90.3 AUc and the TWI is at 79.1.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.

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2 Comments

While it is a great benefit financially to NZ Universities and tertiary providers hosting International students at 17k per student per year. - what are the motivations beyond income generation? Is there a more worthy goal of educational enrichment? 

If the government fully funded our universities etc would they need to market to so many international students? 

What is the effect on academic quality of classes with high percentages of English as a second language students? Can the Universities promise realistic prospects of career- level jobs for their international students? 

Bigger picture: is it ethical for a first world country like NZ to exploit the desires of third world citizens whose families often sacrifice everything to finance one child to study in a western country? 

Where do these students end up? According to the job search visa rules, they are supposed to only be granted  residency if they gain a full time career at a level consistent with their qualification.   What pressure is placed on academics to pass international students who must pass or lose their study visa? 

Do NZers have any say on the immigration & international students study (related) settings in election time?  

 

 

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... to put the importance of our international education industry in perspective , it turns over $ 2 billion annually for NZ , more than our entire wine industry manages to do ...

 

I gotta drink more ... to assist in the catch up ... HIC .... pardom ne ....

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