A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; Westpac and RaboDirect cut rates, retail spending very strong, new bank notes released, swap rates rise, NZD rises

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Westpac dropped its two year fixed rate to 4.49%, but lower rates are available at BNZ. Other rivals target their one year rate offers.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
RaboDirect reduced rates for terms 6 months to 2 years by -5 to -10 bps.

MEMO MISSING
Retail spending using electronic cards was $4.5 billion in September 2015, up +$256 mln or +6.1% from the same month a year ago, Statistics New Zealand said today. More impressively, core retail spending jumped +7.7%. Consumers are continuing to buy up a storm, despite what some say is a bleaker outlook for our economy. Consumers didn't get the memo. The data is even more impressive given price rises are virtually absent.

SEPTEMBER HOUSE PRICES
For anyone looking for the REINZ September data today, you should know that they have advised that it will be published at 11am on Monday.

RISES RESUME
Data out in Australia today shows that housing finance, which took a breather mid-year, is growing strong again according to the August data released today. And that was before the confidence jump they got with the change in Prime Minister.

NEW BANK NOTES ON THE WAY
New $5 and $10 bank notes will be in public circulation from Monday, the first day that banks and retailers can distribute them. About 345,000 of the new Series 7 bank notes have been sent to banks and eventually they will replace the 45 mln that are currently in circulation. But you may not actually see a new note for some weeks. All up only 6% of the value of our bank notes are in $5 and $10 denominations. A quarter of the value is in $20 notes, a third in $50 notes, and 37% of the value is in $100 notes. (The rest are in old $1 and $2 notes never recovered and still out there.) As today's electronic card data shows, fewer and fewer retail transactions are being paid for by notes and coins. Still, M0 is growing at over +9% pa, so what is all this un-traceable cash being used for?

DID YOU KNOW ...
... that we now have an Ambassador for Counter Terrorism ? It is senior diplomat Carl Worker.

WHOLESALE RATES
The 90-day bank bill rate is down -2 basis points at 2.86% today, but swap rates are up again by between +2 and +3 basis points across the curve.

NZ DOLLAR 
The Kiwi dollar is higher again against the greenback than it was this morning at 66.7 USc, holding against the Aussie at 91.8 AUc, and up at 59.2 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now just marginally under 71. Check our real-time charts here.

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