Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
We still have one major (BNZ) who hasn't announced its OCR cut, along with four pf the smaller banks. Keeping quiet seems to be the new strategy to protect reputations ahead of an announcement. Apart from the banks who have not passed on all the OCR cut, ASB (and its siblings) is the one who have shaken up this marketplace with strong reductions to fixed rates.
STILL NO POST OCR MORTGAGE MOVE FROM BNZ
BNZ, the only remaining big bank yet to change mortgage rates since last week's OCR cut, says it has no plans to do so "at this stage." A BNZ spokeswoman says the bank currently has no changes to announce, but is constantly reviewing interest rates. "There are a range of factors that impact if a bank increases or decreases its interest rates. The OCR is one of them. Equally, one other consideration is the rising cost of wholesale funds due to a more volatile offshore market," the BNZ spokeswoman said.
TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There is no reluctance by banks to cut the full (and sometimes more) -0.25% from savings and short-term term deposit rates. Both Kiwibank and TSB Bank have reduced rates for many terms. One stands out: Kiwibank reduced its 1 month term deposit rate from 2.30% to 1.75% which is a drop of -55 bps. However, to be fair, the 1.75% rate is still well above equivalent rates for this term by the main banks. It is in the savings account area where things get fierce: ANZ, who only passed on a -10 bps reduction to floating rate borrowers, is passing on the full -25 bps reduction for many of its savings account, most to 0.75%. (We should also note ANZ's bonus saver is still at 3.00% and unchanged.) More here.
INCREASED PACE
New Zealand's services sector is showing no signs of slackening. The PSI for February was 56.9. This was 1.5 points higher than January, and continues the trend of the sector recording a post-55 point value since December 2014. February's result was boosted by a strong showing in sales (sub-index = 60.0) and new orders/business (sub index = 61.4).
STRONGER GROWTH, WEAKER INFLATION
The latest NZIER Consensus Forecasts show that on average economists now see GDP pushing up to 2.6% for the year to March 2017, rising to 3% in the March 2018 year and easing back to 2.5% in 2019. This compares with forecasts in December of 2.5%, 2.7% and 2.3% for the same periods. More here.
HAPPY MONDAY
The Shanghai stock exchange has taken off today, in mid-morning trading it is up +2.2%. Australia is up +0.7%, Hong Kong is up +1.3% and Tokyo is up +1.9%. These rises follow a strong finish to last week by Wall Street. The NZX50 is up +0.9% as well.
UNHAPPY 2016
Global temperatures leapt in February, lifting warming from pre-industrial levels to beyond 1.5 degrees, and stoking concerns about a "climate emergency". According to NASA analysis, average temperatures last month were 1.35 degrees above the norm for the 1951-1980 period. At present, this data is skewed by much higher temperatures in the northern latitudes than we are seeing in the south.
PROGRESS
An update of the "Better Public Services" program was released today. A dashboard of results so far is here.
WHOLESALE RATES STEEPEN BUT VERY LOW
The steepening bias observers have been noting previously continued today. One year rates are up +1 bps, five year rates are up +2 bps and ten year rates are up +3 bps. NZ swap rates are here and they are at or near their all-time lows. The 90-day bank bill rate slipped back by -1 bp to 2.38%.
NZ DOLLAR HIGHER
Markets bid up the NZ dollar today. It is now at 67.4 USc, at 89 AUc and 60.5 euro cents. The TWI-5 is back up to 71.1 which is higher than Friday but slightly lower that where we started today. Check our real-time charts here.
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4 Comments
"Better Public Services" Your were right to put quotation marks on that one DC. The public service lurches on in it's usual disjointed way, and from somebody who works closely with those services they seem determined not to change.
At Cabinet level Bill English, Paula Bennet, and others are really trying to get social services to work together and from a data informed position. But the departments and their contractors (thre so called 'not for profits') continue to thwart them.
Witness the cycle of each new programme being announced -trendy title- advertorial with photos-ad agency - contractors hogging in, Salvation Army, the Education Institutions - money being made.
Then three years later the programme quietly being discontinued. And all move on to the next new thing before the world works out the old one was a mess. It 's all meant to keep things looking good and 'something is being done'
You can keep this cycle going for years
Opps - couldn't happen here - right?
Landlords are exploiting legal loopholes to make millions off housing benefits while providing sub-standard and dangerous accommodation, an investigation has revealed.
More than 200 individual landlords across the country have collected more than £1million each in housing benefits over the last three years, Monday’s Dispatches will show. Read more
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