A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; home loan rate cuts, building consents rise, credit growth modest, wholesale rates fall

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

WESTPAC CUTS MORTGAGE RATES
It was Westpac's turn to slice more off home loan rates today. They changed a number of fixed rates, all down. But it was their five year rate that now stands out at 6.89%.

BUILDING CONSENTS HIGHER
The April data is confused somewhat by the convergence of the Easter and Anzac Day holidays. The actual number of consents were 19% higher than the same month a year ago due to booming apartment approvals. But for houses, on a seasonally adjusted basis the trend was the other way. You can see consent data by province here.

MONEY SUPPLY GROWTH SLOWING
M3 grew +5.3% in April year-on-year, while notes and coins in circulation grew +6.9%. Both rates of growth are slowdowns from earlier in the year.

RURAL CREDIT GROWTH MODEST
Credit to the rural sector grew a modest +2.3% year-on-year in April, its slowest rate of increase in two years.

CONSUMER CREDIT GROWING STRONGLY
Non-housing household credit growth was +4.6% and although not as high as for March it is still much faster than we have seen for years.

HOUSING CREDIT GROWTH SLOWS
At +5.4% year-on-year and 'only' +$650 million higher than last month, it is clear that the housing mortgage market slowed in April. Expect banks to be fiercely competitive as they chase their volume goals.

BUSINESS CREDIT GROWTH TAME
Businesses only added +2.6% more credit in April than the same month a year ago. We are not seeing any credit-based growth.

WHOLESALE RATES ADJUST
Wholesale swap rates were up today, cancelling out most of yesterday's big drop. The 90 day bank bill rate dropped one bp today and is now at 3.42%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar has meandered today but late in the afternoon it eked out a gain and is up slightly. The USD is at 85.0 USc, the Aussie is now at 91.3 AUc. The TWI is at 79.2.