A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Friday; retail rates quiet, building work soft, rental market turns in tenant's favour, Cron accounts languish, farmer rush for bank debt, swaps firm, NZD firm, & more

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today. All rates are here. And note, you can compare mortgage offers with our new calculator that takes into account other costs and cashback incentives, here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
None here either. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.

UP BUT MARGINALLY
There was a seasonal lift in value of new building work in September quarter. But the amount of new building work being started remains relatively subdued compared to previous years.

RENTAL MARKET SHIFTS FURTHER IN TENANT'S FAVOUR
Data from portal realestate.co.nz shows that the number of residential properties newly listed for rent hit a record high in November while asking rents continued to decline.

FLYING IN FROM CANADA, AS AUSSIE FLIES OUT
Dominant general insurer IAG has named its CEO replacement for Amanda Whiting. It will be American (an Alabama 'bulldog') Phillip Gibson effective 2 March, 2025. He has previously held senior executive roles with Accenture, Aviva Canada, Allstate and Travelers, most recently at consultants Accenture in Toronto, following seven years at Aviva Canada.

CHARGES RISE FASTER
September data on local authority rates and regulatory income shows it rose +10.9% from a year ago. That extends the +10% pace for about nine quarters. Within that overall rise, rates were up +10.1% while in Q3, regulatory income up a remarkable +18.4% from a year earlier, up from $280.3 mln to $330.8 mln.

WORKPLACE HAPPINESS
Seek surveys 'workplace happiness'. Their 1561 person sample shows that they are happiest with at work with their location (68% happy), team/colleagues (66%) and purpose at work (63%). On the other hand, career progression opportunities (37% happy) ranks lowest in happiness, as was the case in 2024 (39%). Apparently, only 56% of workers are currently happy with their managers. Happiness with company commitment to ESG has shown no movement (41% in 2024 & 2025) "suggesting that these are some of the more challenging areas for employers to address", Seek says.

CROWN ACCOUNTS LANGUISHING
The release of the interim Crown Accounts for the four months to the end of October 2025 tell the story of a stuttering economy. Income tax from individuals is now only up +1.6% from the same month a year ago. GST receipts at $2.491 bln in October have become static. In fact the Crown received GST of 2.49 bln in January 2023 and while it did rise from theer, it flatlined in 2024 so this now paints a very tepid picture. Interest withholding tax collected is now falling rather fast. If the Crown revenue results were a business, the board would likely be calling in the CEO to explain why things appear to be stalling.

FARMERS RUSH BANKS FOR MORE DEBT
There has been an unusual rise in bank debt taken up by farmers in October, something we weren't expecting. Overall, it rose by +80% to $1.293 bln in the month, up +$360 bln just from September. Most of that was dor dairy farms (+$305 mln) and from a year ago they have borrowed +135% more. Sheep & beef farms raised their year-on-year bank debt at +14.6% and horticulture by +15.0%.

NZX50 EASES
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index was down -0.4% so far on Friday. That puts it down -0.2% over the past five working days. It is up +3.0% year-to-date. From a year ago it is now up +4.3%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is down a rather sharp -1.7% so far today. Among the majors, Fletcher Building, Channel Infrastructure, Scales, and Investore Property lift while Gentrack, Argosy Property, Mercury, and F&P Healthcare fall.

SOE KIWIBANK GETS ITS TIER 2 FUNDING
Kiwibank has been in the market looking to at least $200 mln from investors in their ten year Tier 2 subordinated notes. The offer closed today and they actually raised $400 mln. They will pay swap plus a margin of 1.45% for the first five years, or about 4.90%, and it will be recalculated for the final five years.

FLETCHER BUILDING ESCAPES FROM US PRIVATE PLACEMENT DEBT
It has paid all this USPPP debt early at a cost of $7 mln. It has rearranged other debt obligations so that its next material debt maturity is pushed out to 2028.

NORTH SHORE HORNET INFESTATION
The eradication effort targeting Auckland's North Shore hornet infestation is being escalated with more traps, ground searches and efforts to raise public awareness. If you live in the area, here is a fact sheet including pictures of that is being targeted.

JAPANESE SURPRISE
In Japan, household personal spending fell unexpectedly in October, and quite hard. It was down -2.9% from a year ago, way different to the market expectations of a +1.0% rise, and reversing a +1.8% gain in September. It was the first decline since April. From September, personal spending fell -3.5%, and starkly different from the expected +0.7% rise.

STOP ORDER AGAINST FXCM
In Australia, regulator ASIC has made an interim stop order preventing Stratos Trading (trading as FXCM) from issuing contracts for difference to retail clients because of deficiencies in its target market determination.

SWAP RATES FIRM
Wholesale swap rates are have probably turned back up today, across the board. Keep an eye on our chart below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. The 90 day bank bill rate was unchanged at 2.47% on Thursday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is up +6 bps at 4.67%. The China 10 year bond rate is up +2 bps at 1.85%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up +2 bps at 4.44%. The RBNZ data is now 'prior day' with Wednesday's rate down -2 bps at 4.38%. The UST 10yr yield is up +1 bp at 4.09%.

EQUITIES LITTLE-CHANGED, EXCEPT IN ASIA
The local equity market is down -0.4% in Thursday trade so far. The ASX200 is up +0.1% in afternoon trade. Tokyo is down -1.5% in its opening trade. Hong Kong is down -0.6% and Shanghai is down -0.2%. Singapore is unchanged at its open. Wall Street ended its Thursday trade with a lackluster +0.1% firming..

OIL HOLDS
The oil price in the US is unchanged at just under US$59.50/bbl and the international Brent price is now at just over US$63/bbl.

CARBON PRICE FIRMS MARGINALLY
After the failed Govt auction, some secondary market transactions are reappearing, now at $42/NZU. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

GOLD SLIPS
In early Asian trade, gold is down -US$9/oz from yesterday, now at US$4200/oz.

NZD FIRMS MARGINALLY
The Kiwi dollar is up +20 bps from this time yesterday, now just under 57.7 USc. Against the Aussie we are down -20 bps at 87.2 AUc. Against the euro we are +10 bps firmer at 49.5 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is at just on 62.1 and up +10 bps.

BITCOIN HOLDS
The bitcoin price is now at US$92,395 and essentially unchanged from this time yesterday. Volatility has been low at just over +/- 1.6%.

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

Keep abreast of upcoming events by following our Economic Calendar here ».