A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; mortgage approvals weaken, more tourists spending more, credit card use stable, wholesale rates fall

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

MORTGAGE APPROVALS STABLE
The number and value of new home loans approved were very similar last week to the week before. However compared with the same period a year ago, they are down 11% in volume and weakening.

MIGRATION STRONG
April is usually one of the weakest for permanent migration, but this year it was strongly positive. Pouring in, says David Hargreaves.

AUCKLAND'S INVESTMENTS GROWING
The value of Auckland Council’s key financial investments has grown by more than $1 billion in the past four years. They started with $1.5 billion and its now worth $2.5 billion, an increase of 69% over 3.5 years. The gains were mostly driven by the strong operating performance of the city’s ports and the airport.

TOURISTS RAISE THEIR SPENDING HERE
Total spending by visitors from the USA in the past year was up 55% to $727 million and spending by visitors from China rose 19% to $869 million. Overall, spending by those here for a holiday in total is up 18% to $4.2 billion. And all this heady growth comes at a time our exchange rate was high. It's no barrier it seems. Good marketing for a good product pays for itself.

VISITOR NUMBERS RISE TOO
The late timing of Easter and school holidays in key source countries pushed up the number of international visitor arrivals in April to 12% above its April 2013 level. Combining March and April together to look past this distortion shows that visitor numbers were up a more moderate 1.4% on a year earlier. Arrivals from the US, France, and Germany grew particularly strongly in March and April - up 11%, 17%, and 17% respectively from a year earlier.

CREDIT CARD USE
We owe $6.2 billion on our credit cards, with 65.7% of that incurring interest, a slight decrease. However, banks have given us a total credit limit of an amazing $20.1 billion and rising. We are using just 31% of that.

WHOLESALE RATES FALL
All wholesale rates fell 2 bps today across the entire curve. Swap rates were down 2 bps and the 90 day bank bill rate was down 2 bps, now at 3.39%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar has continued falling today, and even though the down trend is fairly modest it has been only one-way traffic. Against the USD we are now at 85.6 USc, but against the Aussie we are up slightly at 92.7 AUc. The TWI is at 79.8. It is the pairing with Australia that is doing the most weighing on the kiwi dollar.