A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; Wheeler says inflation risks look balanced; EU our biggest source of imports; Aus trade balance below forecasts and building consents falling; local rates rise but less than expected

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
NZCU Baywide raised a number of rates, including their 1yr rate to 4.00%. Asset Finance also raised rates across the board.

WHAT WHEELER SAID
In a speech today Wheeler said: "In effect, there is an equal probability that the next OCR adjustment could be up or down.  We consider the balance of risks for the global outlook to be downside.  For the domestic economy, there is some potential upside for output growth if migration and commodity prices turn out to be stronger than forecast, but the risks around inflation look balanced." The New Zealand dollar moved up very slightly from about US71.4c to US71.6c after the speech was published.

SELL TO AUS AND CHINA, BUY FROM EU
We love our European cars and holidays and spent $11.7 bln on buying stuff from the EU in 2016, making it our largest source of imports, pipping Australia. But Australia ($12.8 bln) pipped China ($12.3 bln) as our top export customer.

AUSTRALIA MISSES TRADE BALANCE
The Australian trade balance, reported at A$1.3 bln, was significantly lower than the expected A$3.8 bln and A$2.0 bln below December 2016.

AUSTRALIAN BUILDING CONSENTS FALLING
Building consents for January in Australia have fallen by 13.1% on a y-o-y basis. While this was largely in line with expectations, this is likely to put further pressure on already fast rising housing prices.

WHOLESALE RATES MOVE UP
New Zealand wholesale swap rates rose and steepened today less than what would have been expected given the rise in US Treasuries overnight. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 2.00%.

NZ DOLLAR STABLE
That same Trump move has seen the USD strengthen slightly. The NZD has slipped slightly to 71.4 USc. On the cross rates we are at 93.2 AUc, and at 67.8 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is now at 77.1. Check our real-time charts here.

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