A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; ANZ raises rates, Barfoots big month, Govt's big debt, swap rates very flat, RBA holds fire

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
ANZ raised its one year home loan rate by +10 bps on Thursday evening to 5.49% for their one year 'special', and 5.99% for their standard offer.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
ANZ raised its 9 month term deposit rate to 4.25%, a +15 bps rise from 4.10%.

'BEST MARCH EVER'
Auckland's largest real estate agents, Barfoot & Thompson reported a strong sales month in March pushed along by strong sales in the +$1 mln price range. Barfoots have about 40% of the Auckland market and all their offices are company-owned (no franchisees).

STILL RISING, BUT ...
The total amount of Government securities on issue rose by $1.2 bln in March to $82.2 bln. This won't start declining until there are surpluses, and they will need to be fairly substantial ones to put a dent in this debt pile. A year ago, Govt debt securities were $75.9 bln which is +8.3% higher. But $7.7 bln will mature on April 15 and will be paid back. Next month we should see a drop in overall debt on issue. Where will the $7.7 bln go?

FONTERRA PONDERS BONDS
Fonterra is considering making an offer of $250 million of senior bonds to institutional investors and to New Zealand retail investors. They are currently checking what rates they will have to pay and likely demand levels.

STILL SHOPPING
Aussie retail trade data was out today for February and that showed a +4.5% rise over the same month a year ago even though price increases are quite low. But is was not even across sectors. Department store sales actually dropped while "household goods retailing" (read Harvey Norman) was up +9.5%. Cafes and restaurants saw revenues rise +5.1%. Online sales are apparently just 2.8% of all Aussie retail, a level that seems hard to believe. Sometimes ABS data suffers integrity criticism. Today's data was better than markets were expecting.

WHOLESALE RATES FLAT
Wholesale swap rates again fell today by -1 to -3 bps, but with a flattening bias over the 1-5 curve. It is now just a miniscule +3 bps. In fact the 1-5 curve is now just +5 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate was also lower to 3.63%.

NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The NZ dollar has basically held on to its weekend gains. As of late afternoon it's at 75.3 USc, 99 AUc, and the TWI is unchanged from yesterday at 80.3. But all that might change in 30 minutes when the RBA reveals its rate decision for April. However the market sentiment seems to be building that Governor Stevens won't move this month. But you never know with him. We will update this story when the decision is known. Check our real-time charts here.

UPDATE: RBA HOLDS AT 2.25%
Suprising many, the RBA left its cash rate unchanged. This knocked a cent off the AUD/NZD cross rate. Not parity party today.

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