A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; RBNZ changes its mood, Greens push 100% renewable, Herbert convicted, Nats to double rural exports, NZD 'unjustified, unsustainable'

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today, although AMP Home Loans adopted the latest Kiwibank rate reductions, which are market-leading.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today.

MONETARY POLICY REVIEWED
Today's review was steady-as-she-goes. No rate changes. The signals however were in the MPS assumptions showing the Reserve Bank itself doesn't see inflation, or rising wholesale rates, even though they clearly want to raise the OCR back to 'normal' levels. The message on interest rates is low for longer, but still up over time, says Westpac.

100% RENEWABLE
The Green Party energy plan was released today. They want a target of 100% renewable electricity generation by 2030. They will provide low-cost loans for households and schools to invest in solar panels. They want to speed the transition of the private vehicle fleet to electricity by investing $10 million into the roll-out of fast-charging electric car refueling stations, with $10 million in cash-back payments to electric car buyers (and over time, replace the Crown car fleet with electric vehicles "where there are appropriate electric vehicles available"). They also want real time electricity pricing, limited fixed lines charges, and a "fair price" for surplus renewable electricity.

ANOTHER TYPE OF INSURANCE FRAUD
Grant Malcolm Herbert (62), the former owner and director of insurance broking firm Herbert Insurance Group, has been found guilty of 17 Crimes Act charges and seven Secret Commissions Act charges following a jury trial in the Auckland District Court. He took premiums from clients but failed to forward approximately $2.5 million of this to insurers, in some cases leaving the customers uninsured. He will be sentenced on October 16.

"MORE, BIGGER, BETTER"
The National Party released its Primary Industries policy today. They aim to double the value of our primary sector exports by 2025 – from $32 billion to $64 billion. They also plan to support PGPs " co-investing over $700 million into 18 innovation projects with industry". "Irrigation and water storage has a major role to play, given the droughts we have suffered through over the last two years. We will continue to support carefully-targeted irrigation projects that will deliver economic and environmental benefits for New Zealand."

ASTONISHING AUSSIE LABOUR SURVEY DATA
Australian employment surges +120,000 in August, the largest monthly gain on record, and the unemployment rate reverts to its June level of 6.1% down from the July rate of 6.4%. Today's report was a big surprise to most observers, reversing last month's poor outcomes. We have issues with our HLFS but the ones the ABS has with their are larger, it seems.

WHOLESALE RATES
Swap rates fell today -3 or -4 bps across the board the once medium term RBNZ assumptions in its MPS were absorbed. The 90 day bank bill rate was up a point today at 3.69%.

OUR CURRENCY
Check our real-time charts here. Despite Governor Wheeler using his platform today to say the Kiwi dollar is "unjustified" and "unsustainable", the currency markets sort of ignored him. They did bid the NZ dollar down but it is back up to 82.0 USc now. We did fall a bit more against the Aussie however and are now at 89.2 AUc. The TWI is now under 78.5.

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