A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; mortgage approvals sag, inflation weak, 90 day bill rates jump, NZD falls, Co-op Bank pushes bonus saver boundary

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

MORTGAGE APPROVALS SAG AGAIN
Volumes of home loans approved as reported by the RBNZ for last week were at their lowest level since January holiday period (excepting Waitangi Day weekend) but the value of approvals remained up there. As a consequence the average loan being approved hit an all-time record, exceeding $190,000 for the first time.

THE (NEW) BEST BONUS SAVER
Co-op Bank has increased its bonus saver to 4.35% with a bonus of 3.85% and a base of 0.5%. That trumps ASB's Savings Plus 4.25% bonus saver which was the previous leader.

INFLATION WEAKER BUT ...
It came in at +1.5% pa, down from +1.6%pa in December. But the result hides some growing non-tradable inflation which has almost reached 3% pa, and hidden away in the detail were local and central government charges up over 3%. It's the currency that is keeping the overall CPI low, and the RBNZ will be looking through that.

DAIRY PRICES WEAK
Todays' GlobalDairyTrade auction was lower again, the fifth straight decline. In NZD terms, these prices are 25% lower than a year ago. At some point the currency market will notice.

LIFESTYLE BLOCK SALES STRONG
The March REINZ data reported 627 sales of lifestyle blocks, the second highest monthly level since 2007. Stronger sales in this area compliments the house sales data that is also getting more concentrated into the upper price brackets.

GENESIS SHARE DEMAND VERY STRONG
The Government has found a successful formula in its SOE selldown - just as the program is ending. The latest offer had to be scaled due to the level of demand.

GETTING OVERSEAS KIWIS TO PAY THEIR STUDENT LOANS
Over $100 million has now been collected from overseas-based student loan borrowers in a debt collection effort that now covers Australia, Britain, parts of Europe, North America and Asia. Overseas-based borrowers are responsible for 87% of all overdue loan repayments despite representing only 21% of total student loan debt. "They need to understand their loan doesn’t just go away when they go offshore," Minister Steven Joyce said.

CHRISTCHURCH GETS HOUSING ACCORD
The government and Christchurch City Council have signed an Accord deal to increase a 180 unit housing area to 400 units to help in the accommodation of families during the quake remediation process.

WHOLESALE RATES FLATTER
Yesterday's rise in Swap rates was reversed today with 5 bps falls across the board, except for the 1 year which only declined 2 bps. Going the other way the 90 day bank bill rate was up another 3 bps to 3.28%. Markets have now pushed this rate above the 25 bps expected for the RBNZ OCR review next week and seem to now be starting to price in the June 12 increase as well.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar has fallen today, taking its cue from the CPI data, but reinforced by the dairy price weakness. It is now under 86 USc and we are under 92 AUc. The TWI has now dropped to 79.8.