A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; Moody's sees 'relatively rapid' rise in US interest burden, Fonterra banks on China, student debt jumps the ditch, swaps zoom higher, NZD falls

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes here either.

MOODY'S ON THE US RATE RISE
Ratings agency Moody's says the expected ongoing gradual tightening of monetary conditions in the US will raise US government interest costs over the longer term. In a report it said that today’s rate increase will have only a negligible impact on US debt servicing costs. "However, with a somewhat shorter average maturity of outstanding US Treasury securities than we observe in other highly rated sovereigns, the US’s interest burden will rise relatively rapidly as the fed funds rate increases and/or if inflation expectations rise further. We expect the government’s net interest expense to rise to 12.7% of total spending in fiscal 2025—a level last seen in the early 1990s—from 6.6% in fiscal 2016, in line with Congressional Budget Office forecasts." Meanwhile Moody's expects emerging markets to benefit from firmer US growth, but sees them as still vulnerable to volatile capital flows. Countries that see their currencies weakening as a result of the stronger $US may have to raise their own interest rates to combat inflation, the agency says.

FONTERRA SIGNS UP WITH CHINESE BANK
Fonterra's signed up to a RMB 1.5 billion (NZ$300 million) multi-currency bank facility with Bank of China. The facility is believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand. Fonterra says it will give it greater flexibility in funding its Chinese operations. Fonterra chief financial officer, Lukas Paravicini, said the new facility did not mean Fonterra was taking on more debt. Rather it offered the Co-operative alternatives and increased diversity in RMB funding sources. "There is no change to our existing strategy of growing our business in China. This is simply a better way to organise the funding of that strategy." Bank of China, one of China's top four banks, established a branch in New Zealand two years ago.

DOING A RUNNER ACROSS THE DITCH... OWING $430 MLN
The Government says a new information sharing agreement between Inland Revenue and the Australian Tax Office has led to the contact details of almost 57,000 student loan borrowers being located across the Tasman, two thirds of whom are in default. “These borrowers have a combined loan balance of $1.2 billion and $430 million of that is in default. Inland Revenue will now start chasing up these borrowers and taking action to get their student loan repayments back on track,” Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce says. The information was contained in the Student Loan Scheme annual report.

BUILDING WORK RISES 2.4%
The volume of residential building work rose 2.4% in the September 2016 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. This rise followed 5.7% and 5.6% increases in the June and March quarters, respectively. ASB senior economist Jane Turner said the building work put in place in the latest quarter was slightly weaker than expected. However, ASB retains its Q3 GDP forecast of 0.8%. The GDP figures are out next week.

OUT OF THE DARK
Discover Waitomo says it has become the first New Zealand tourism operator to launch Alipay and WeChat Pay payment services at the iconic Waitomo Glowworm Caves. The company says the Alipay and WeChat Pay technologies allow international visitors to "purchase using an easy and efficient mobile wallet functionality rather than credit card or cash". Both Alipay and WeChat Pay platforms were successfully installed at Waitomo Glowworm Caves last week and are already being welcomed by visitors and staff, who have praised the simplicity of the service, the company says.

WHOLESALE RATES RACE HIGHER
Swap rates have zoomed higher today in response to the US Fed rate hike and their hawkish signals. They rose in one bout this morning, and took off again this afternoon. The two year is now up +8 bps on the day, the five year is up +13 bps and the ten year is up +16 bps so far. The 90-day bank bill is down -1 bp at 2.03%. The UST 10 yr benchmark is now at 2.58%, a +15 bps.

NZ DOLLAR FALLS
The Kiwi dollar has sunk against a resurgent US dollar. It is now at 71 USc. On the cross rates it is at 95.6 AUc, and is up at over 67.4 euro cents. The TWI-5 now at 77.3. Check our real-time charts here.

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