A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; no rate changes, record visitor levels, record permanent migrants, new NZGB popular, full-time pay compared, swaps and NZD unchanged

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
None here either.

WE HAVE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE
Most of the visitors coming to New Zealand for a holiday come from Australia. In the year to January we welcomed 518,900 of them. The second biggest source is China from where 285,200 came, and they in turn were followed by 153,800 Americans. The gains from China however are impressive, up +50% in a year with the more recent months even higher; they are up +14% from the US. Almost 3.2 mln visitors arrived here in the year to January for stays of less than a year.

RECORD MIGRATION, BUT BIG CATEGORY VARIATION
Inbound permanent migration is still surging with a net gain of 65,911 in the year to January, and a net gain of 7,729 in January which is an all-time record. More than 1,200 net permanent arrivals came from Australia, also a record.  China was the top source of 'residence visa' arrivals in the year to January, India the top source of 'student visa' arrivals, and the UK the top source of 'work visa' arrivals. (China was 7th in the 'work visa' category, India 9th.) For other than returning NZers and Aussies, work visas are the largest single category.

POPULAR TENDER
Today's first tender of the new NZ$100 mln 2033 NZG bonds was well received with bids for NZ$370mln and a weighted average yield of 3.31%.

AVERAGE FULL-TIME PAY LEVELS
Average adult ordinary full-time gross earnings now exceed AU$1,500 per week in Australia which is a +1.6% pa gain. That data compares with New Zealand full-time gross earnings of NZ$1,111 which are rising 3.1% pa. (In Australia their average will attract income tax of AU$355; in New Zealand our average income attracts tax of $199. So take home pays compare AU$1,145 vs NZ$912. Overtime is on top of these levels.)

WHOLESALE RATES HOLD
NZ swap rates are surprisingly unchanged today. That is because benchmark US rates took a tumble overnight and I was expecting a local reaction. But it has not eventuated. (Update: late in the day, they did slip -1 bps across the curve.) The 90-day bank bill is also unchanged at 2.58%.

NZ DOLLAR GOES NOWHERE
The Kiwi dollar is still ranging. It is now at 66.6 USc, and at 92.8 AUc. The TWI-5 is now at 71.3. Check our real-time charts here.

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