Here's my summary of the key issues from over the weekend that affect New Zealand, with news of yet another record high for the NZ dollar against the euro.
Over the weekend, China responded to criticism saying its new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will not suffer the taint of corruption that seems to be affecting other Chinese institutions, and it will "be lean, clean and green". They are playing down concerns over transparency and standards governing this new institution, one that New Zealand signed up to early.
China's consumer price index rose +1.4% in March, their National Bureau of Statistics said over the weekend.
In Europe, the ECB has delivered a negative opinion of Greece's proposal to prevent mortgagee sales. This is another step in the rejection of the new Greek government's reform proposals.
In fact, even if it survives the next three months teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Greece may have blown its best chance of a long-term debt deal by alienating its euro zone partners when it most needed their support.
Germany is expressing high levels of frustration that the Greeks seem to be avoiding reforms.
In New York, the UST 10yr yield rose marginally at the end of last week to 1.95%.
The US oil price also rose slightly to US$52/barrel and Brent crude to $58 a barrel. The fall in the US rig count last week was the largest in a month. The international rig count is starting to fall too, something we haven't seen before. At the same time the IEA is expecting any deal with Iran to pump significant amounts of new crude supply into the international markets.
The gold price had a larger rise and starts the week at US$1,207/oz.
The New Zealand dollar will start the week higher at 75.4 US¢, still very high against the Aussie at 98.2 AU¢, and the TWI is just on 80.8. We also have hit further all-time record highs against the sinking euro and the NZD is now at 71.1 euro cents.
If you want to catch up with all the local changes on Friday, we have an update here.
The easiest place to stay up with event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »
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