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
ICBC raised some fixed rates today, but its new 4.65% one year rate is still the best in market for that term. All current mortgage rates are here. And note, you can compare mortgage offers with our unique calculator that takes into account other costs and cashback incentives, here.
TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
Treasury (DMO) has raised the rates for Kiwi Bonds by between +25 bps and +75 bps. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.
BUSINESS BORROWING RATE CHANGES
ANZ has advised that its Working Capital Base rate will rise to 11.27% today from 11.00%.
MIXED USD PRICES UNDERMINED BY LOWER USD VALUE
The Pulse dairy auction delivered some higher prices from last week's full auction event - in USD terms at least. For example WMP was up almost +1%. But the rising NZD turned that into a -0.7% softening. SMP fell -2.3% in USD, AMF fell -1.1%, butter rose nearly +1%.
GENDER PAY GAP STOPS SHRINKING
The gender pay gap was 5.3% in the June 2026 quarter, compared with 5.2% in the June 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. That follows a fall from 8.3% in 2025. The gender pay gap is one way to understand the differences in pay between men and women. It is calculated by comparing their median hourly earnings from wages and salaries. A gender pay gap of 0 percent would imply no difference in median full time earnings between men and women.
ZERO NOMINAL GROWTH
Stats NZ also revealed that "Median weekly income from all sources collected, for all people, was $962 in the June 2026 quarter (compared with $959 in the June 2025 quarter)". It was $959 for June 2024 as well. So this measure shows essentially zero change over three years! Meanwhile, median weekly earnings from wages and salaries were $1,419 in the June 2026 quarter, an increase of +2.8% from $1,381 in the June 2025 quarter. In the June 2024 quarter it was $1,343. So for wage & salary earners, it is settling in at +2.8% pa. CPI inflation was 4.1% in the June 2026 quarter, 2.7% in the June 2025 quarter, and 3.3% in the June 2024 quarter. In every case inflation is running more than median weekly income growth no matter how you measure or section it.
LESS NEW HOME LOAN LENDING
New mortgage lending in July fell from June and was down -13% from the same month a year ago. Lending for property purchases was down -12.5% and lending because the borrower changed their bank was down -26% although back to just under $2 bln per month and the underlying level it has been since the end of 2024. Of note is that the value of loans being switched is lower, in fact the lowest of any month since late 2024, at $640,700. The average value of new loans is relatively stable at just under $600,000.
BIGGER ALLOCATION OFFSHORE, LARGER GAINS
The total value of KiwiSaver across all plans pushed up over $150 bln in June for the first time, now at $155.6 bln and up +18% from June a year ago. This is a recovery. Now less than 39% of these investments are in New Zealand. The offshore allocation is now at $96.1 bln and up +20% from a year ago
JUNE DASHBOARD DATA AVAILABLE
We have updated the RBNZ's Dashboard data to our Key Bank Metrics tool for the June 2026 update. This gives transparency to individual bank outcomes quarterly since 2018. We haven't analysed this data yet because it only dropped just after 3pm, but will report on the key changes separately.
ANZ NZ has named Laura Valiant its new General Counsel and Company Secretary, scheduled to start in November. Valiant is currently General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer for Southern Cross Health Society, and has previously held General Counsel/Head of Legal and Risk and Compliance roles at Westpac, ASB, FlexiGroup and GE Capital. Kirstin Francois, previously Associate General Counsel, has been ANZ NZ’s Acting General Counsel & Company Secretary since December when David Bricklebank left the role and bank.
NZX50 FIRMISH
As at 3pm, the overall NZX50 index was up +0.3% today, and up +0.7% for the past 5 trading sessions. It is up +2.6% from six months ago. From a year ago it is now up +8.3%. Market heavyweight F&P Healthcare is up +0.1% so far today. Scales, Napier Port, Skellerup and Vulcan Steel gained while Air New Zealand, SkyTV, Meridian and Port of Tauranga fell.
CONTEMPT PUNISHED WITH A WET BUS TICKET
MBIE committed a contempt of Parliament, the Privileges Committee has found, after it "misled" a select committee over its bungled IT project. Investigations were launched into integrity concerns over Immigration NZ’s failed Biometric Capability Update (BCU) project. The project in 2018 was launched without Cabinet approval, misled ministers and has needed $31 mln from this year’s Budget to put an end to the project. While it found MBIE committed contempt, the committee said on the basis of the apologies received by the ministry, they did not recommend any further sanctions.
SEEKING A RETURN ON INVESTMENT?
RadioNZ is tracking the big money being raised to fund the 2026 election. You can see their data analysis here. A standout feature is how weak National's small individual donations are. They are very reliant on a small group of very large supporters. Even ACT gets better individual support. Another notable feature is how many of these heavy-hitters are from the horse racing industry, expecially for NZ First.
HIGH & STICKY
In Australia, inflation fell in July as expected but not by as much as expected. Their June 3.8% rate fell to 3.5% in July but still well above the expected 3.2% rate assumed by financial markets. That gave the AUD a bounce, likely on the basis that the RBA's tolerance for still-high inflation may be about to get tested. The next RBA rate review is on September 29 however, and the August CPI data won't actually be known by then (September 30) - by the markets, at least. The RBA's inflation target is "between 2 and 3 percent", but it has been over 3% consistently every month for more than a year now.
SWAP RATES EASE
Wholesale swap rates will likely be lower today. 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 3.01% on Tuesday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is also unchanged at 5.01%. The China 10 year bond rate is up +1 bp at 1.69%. The Japanese 10 year bond is holding at 2.89%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.71% and down -5 bps.. (The RBNZ data is now 'prior day' with the Tuesday rate unchanged at 4.73%.) And the UST 10yr yield is now at 4.64%, and down -7 bps from this time yesterday.
EQUITIES MIXED AGAIN
The NZX50 is up +0.2% from Tuesday's close. The ASX200 has opened down -0.1%. Tokyo has opened up +0.6%. The KOSPI has recovered +1.7% at its open today. Hong Kong has opened up +0.9% and Shanghai is up +0.7% at its open. Singapore is down -0.4% in early Wednesday trade today. Wall Street ended its Tuesday trade with the S&P500 up +0.3% while the Nasdaq was up +0.7%.
OIL PRICES DROP
American oil prices are down a sharp -US$5 from this time yesterday with the WTI benchmark is now just under US$80.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is now just on US$86.50/bbl and down -US$6. All this despite Hormuz at a standstill.
CARBON PRICE FALLS
There have been some trades today but the price has fallen -$2 to $51/NZU. See our daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.
GOLD FIRM
In early Asian trade, gold is up +US$25/oz from this time yesterday, now at US$4660/oz. Silver is up +US$2 at just over US$69.50/oz recovering yesterday's drop.
NZD IN A SOFT HOLD
The Kiwi dollar is unchanged from this time yesterday, still just on 59.6 USc. Against the Aussie we are down -30 bps at 83 AUc. Against the euro we have held at 51.1 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now just under 63 and down -10 bps from yesterday at this time.
BITCOIN STOPS RISING
The bitcoin price is now at US$79,104 and down -1.9% from this time yesterday. Volatility has been modest at just on +/- 1.8%.
HOW THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FORCES AFFECT US
If you want to catch up on what happened last night, try our Economy Watch podcast, here.
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