Bernard Hickey talks to Marcus Lush on RadioLive every weekday about the major business and financial issues of the day

Bernard Hickey talks to Marcus Lush on RadioLive every weekday at around 6.55 about the major business and financial issues of the day. Here are the key issues discussed on Monday. 1. I watch banking lending figures closely for fun. They tell you a lot about the economy. Banks lent an extra NZ$523 million to the agricultural sector in July, bringing the total amount lent to the sector to NZ$46.6 billion,figures released by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand show. At the same time, business credit lendingcontracted by NZ$706 million from June to NZ$78 billion in July, its seventh consecutive month-on-month fall since the start of the year. Housing credit rose by NZ$337 million to NZ$164.8 billion over the month, while other consumer lending fell by NZ$106 million to NZ$12.2 billion. 2. Marac Finance and South Canterbury Finance have announced big losses on property loans and are now looking for hundreds of millions of fresh capital to regain their investment grade credit ratings. Their quest for fresh equity will be closely watched by the Reserve Bank and the Government as they try to stabilise the finance company sector and avoid a big bill before the end of the retail deposit guarantee scheme. 3. Here's an interesting tax idea. Should we apply GST to mortgage payments and rents? It would be one way to take the air of the property market.