A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; rate changes, migrant boom, tourism lift, another housing accord, NZD rises

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

THERE WERE HOME LOAN CHANGES TODAY
Kiwibank raised its floating mortgage rates. But more importantly, ASB made some fairly significant changes to its fixed home loan rates. Generally, it raised rates under 3 years, and lowered them for terms 3 years and over. But is also withdrew some hot specials, so the actual sifts weren't exactly as they seemed. Basically the rate curve is flattening.

THERE WERE ALSO TERM DEPOSIT CHANGES
UDC raised term deposit rates across the board up to 18 months. The increases were between +5 and+30 bps, and pushes their 18 month rate to 5%, better than their parent ANZ's 4.75% offer. There are no term PIE options at UDC however.

HIGHEST IN TEN YEARS
Annual net migration is now up to 36,400, the highest annual immigration in more than decade. A third of this migration surge is due to non-NZers arriving, two thirds due to Trans-Tasman moves.

CREDIT CARDS IN FAVOUR AGAIN
Credit card holders added 7.2% more to their card balances in May than in the same month a year earlier, according to data out from the RBNZ today. In fact, they are putting more of it on deferred terms choosing to pay the interest. The new "0%" promotions are moving the market. An idea of just how successful these promotions are can be gleaned from the growth in the credit limits. It has been six years since we have seen more than a six moth run of +5% y-on-y increases.

RED ZONE OFFERS NOW POLITICAL
A Labour government will ensure that all owners of red-zoned properties in Canterbury receive a buy-out offer of 100% of the 2007 rateable value of their land, says Labour’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery spokesperson Ruth Dyson.

TOURISM SPARKLES
Tourist arrivals lifted by 5.4%pa in May as American and Japanese arrivals boosted numbers. There were more New Zealand holiday makers heading overseas, up by 8.7% pa in May to a record seasonally adjusted high of 194,360 short-term departures. There was a sharp turnaround in arrivals from Japan in May, with numbers increasing by 39% from a year earlier.

FRESH EXPANSION
China's flash PMI was out this afternoon and it has moved back into expansion mode, after shrinking for the past few months.

GOING AFTER PROFIT SHIFTERS
New Zealand has just joined the 15 point action plan developed by the OECD last year as a response to base erosion and profit shifting measures used by some multinational companies to avoid taxation.

ANOTHER HOUSING ACCORD
Queenstown is the latest district to be added to legislation that will enable the council and the Government to work more closely together on housing supply and affordability, Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith announced today. We will have more on this later.

LABOUR LIST ANNOUNCED
The Labour Party list is out. You can compare it with those of the other parties who have released theirs, here.

WHOLESALE RATES
Wholesale swap rates grabbed back 2 bps across the curve today. The 90 day bank bill rate slipped slightly to 3.57%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar was unchanged today until the Chinese PMI result was released. Then it rose vs the USD - it is now at 87.3 USc, - and fell against the Aussie where it is at 92.5 and the TWI is at 81.0.