A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; Bank bill rates jump, population rises, healthy concrete production, occupancy rate falls

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

NO INTEREST RATE CHANGES TODAY
No institution changed any rate today, lending or investment.

REAL ESTATE SALES VOLUMES SLUMP
There were only 5,670 residential real estate sales in April, 20% lower than the same month a year ago and 22.5% lower than in March. The median price however is 10.7% above the same month a year ago. The industry says buyers, especially first home buyers are 'scarcer', acknowledging the fall is more than Easter and school holidays.

CONCRETE PRODUCTION HIGH
The latest data on readymix concrete production for the March quarter shows a 9.9% gain from the same quarter a year ago, but it was the second quarter in a row where volumes actually slipped, even if it was slight. The fall-off was similar in all the main centres.

TOURIST OCCUPANCY RATES SLIP
After a year of good growth the number of March guest nights came in 2.8% below the same month a year earlier. The occupancy rate fell too to 44.9% from 45.7%. The change is more than just seasonal. The falls were in both islands and across all types of accommodation - except backpackers.

POPULATION UP
We had 4,524,900 'ordinarily resident' people in the country as at March 31, 2014. That is up 1.4% from the same month a year ago. It is the fastest growth in population we have had since September 2004. At this rate, New Zealand's population would double in 70 years. We would reach 10 million by just before 2100. (Belgium has 10 million people in it on one nineth the land area. They also have 57% higher per capita incomes.)

AIAL MULLS NEW BOND OFFER
Auckland International Airport is considering offering up to NZ$150 million of fixed rate bonds to the public to " be used to partially refinance our $454 million capital return as well as other general corporate purposes, and would follow last month’s $150 million successful floating rate bond issue to wholesale investors." Clearly borrowed money is cheaper than equity funding.

WHOLESALE RATES MOVE STRONGLY UP
Swap rates were up across the curve today between 2 and 4 bps in a steepening bias. The 90 day bank bill rate was up another 5 bps today to 3.40%. That's now a cumulative rise of 70 bps since the December 2013 MPS when OCR rises were first confirmed. We have had 0.5% so far, so that means 20 or the next 25 bps are now priced in for June.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar is on a very slow weakening path. Not much to it though, although it may find a better direction tomorrow when New York starts its week and later when the Aussies release their budget. The NZD is now at 86.3 USc, 92.2 AUc and the TWI is just below 80.