A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; business confidence up, money supply growing faster, housing approvals stutter, other consents very strong, NZD reaches parity with the AUD

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There were no rate changes today.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to TD rates either.

FEELING GOOD
Business confidence ticked up two points in March: the economic expansion continues at a healthy pace. Firms’ own activity expectations, employment and investment intentions are all high. ANZ is picking +3% growth over the year ahead. Agriculture lifted the most this month, though it remains the least confident sector. Next month could be telling, given dairy prices have resumed falling. Firms pricing all rose, but to be fair off low levels.

MONEY SUPPLY EXPANDING FASTER
Our M3 money supply grew +6.6% year-on-year to the end of February, the highest rate since March 2013. This is RBNZ data. Interestingly, notes and coin supply is growing even faster, +8.8% year-on-year.

HOUSE BUILDING WEAKENS
The number of residential building consents fell by -6.3% in February, on top of a -4.6% decline in January. The trend in building activity has noticeably softened in recent months.

HOME LOANS REACH $198.5 BLN
Housing credit is growing faster again, now up +4.8% year-on-year. This is consistent with home loan approval data. There is now 72.7% of these loans on fixed terms, up from 72.5% in January. Due for rate reset within the next year is $111.8 bln (56%), almost $1 bln less than in January.

NON-HOUSING APPROVALS VERY STRONG
Non-residential building followed up its strong January result with activity at an almost identical level in February. The total value of consents was up +25% from February 2014, driven by +57% growth in Auckland and +65% growth in Canterbury. Auckland’s growth was underpinned by substantial increases in office and storage building consents. Canterbury’s growth was more broad-based and featured sizable rises in hospital, office, industrial, and miscellaneous consents.

FULLY COMMITTED?
The recent spurt in the growth of consumer credit seems to be leveling off, even pulling back. This covers credit cards and other personal loans like car loans. It was up +6% year-on-year to February, down from more than 7% growth in October 2014.

SIMPLER TAX?
The Government today started the first two in a series of public consultations designed to modernise and simplify the tax system. You have until mid-May to make your views known.

NZ DOLLAR PARITY
Check our real-time charts here.  The NZD is weaker against the USD but stronger against the AUD. It is now at 75 USc, at 98.1 AUc, and the TWI is at 79.9. In fact, at these levels we have reached parity with the AUD if you want to buy NZDs.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.