A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; Heartland trims a rate, Tatua top dog again, record energy renewables, Tower admits big mistake, swaps and NZD unchanged

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

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

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Heartland has reduced its two year term deposit rate to 3.65%, down -5 bps from 3.70%.

BRAGGING RIGHTS
Tatua Dairy Company today announced a 2015/16 final payout of $6.41/kgMS gross, less a retention of 11c, for a net of $6.30. This far exceeds Fonterra's $3.90 plus a dividend of 40c, less an 11c retention. Then again, Tatua deals in micro specialised markets, a strategy not open to giant Fonterra who have so much seasonal production they are forced to be involved in some basic dairy commodity trades. You can see the results of all dairy company payouts here. Dunce this year looks like it won't be Fonterra, rather it will be Westland Dairy.

REGIONAL DISCREPANCIES
Westpac has been looking at retail sales activity by region. They report: "Spending in Auckland has risen strongly, supported by population growth, tourist inflows, employment gains, and increases in house prices. It also seems that Aucklanders are just happier than those elsewhere in the country. Retail spending in Canterbury has also risen strongly in recent years, with reconstruction activity proving a powerful boost to demand in the region. However, the wind-down of the rebuild will challenge the strength of demand over the coming years. Outside of the main centres, retail spending growth has been more moderate, in line with the softness in employment growth and consumer confidence. Softness in commodity export earnings is also likely to be dampening spending in these regions. Since 2012 spending growth in Wellington has lagged behind the rest of the country. That’s particularly surprising, and may reflect the relatively flat Wellington labour market in recent years."

REGIONAL TOURISM SPENDING
Supporting the Westpac analysis, MBIE's monitoring of tourism spending shows growing volumes, but volitilely distributed regionally.

CHANGE OF TUNE
Aussie analysts are reporting that people are turning away from seeking out credit cards which offer 'rewards' in favour of low-fee, low-rate options. They report this is likely due to the pull-back by card companies in the value of the reward offers.

ENERGY RECORDS
The latest review of our use of renewable energy places us third in the world behind Iceland (pop: 325,000) and Norway (pop: 5.1 mln). The report shows that renewable energy provided 40.1% of New Zealand’s total primary energy supply in 2015. That is a record high. There is an official goal of having 90% of electricity from renewables by 2025, and we are on target for that. At the same time, energy intensity is at a record low. Energy intensity measures the amount of energy each sector of the NZ economy uses to produce each unit of GDP (MJ/$, GDP in real 2009/10 prices). See p:8. Including 'transport', energy intensity has improved 11% in ten years, improved 25% in 20 years.

A NICE LITTLE TAX-EFFICIENT EARNER
Christchurch City Holdings is the investment arm of Christchurch City Council. It is an SOE at the local level. It owns or has majority holdings in Orion New Zealand, Christchurch International Airport, Lyttelton Port Company, Enable Services, City Care, Red Bus, EcoCentral and Development Christchurch. It also monitors the Canterbury Development Corporation on behalf of the Council. In the year to June 2016 it made an "underlying profit" of $138 mln before taxes. That is on assets of 3.4 bln, so about a 4% pre-tax return on assets (or 7.6% pre-tax on net equity). They paid (provided) tax of just $16.5 mln, or about 12% of underlying profit and far below the standard corporate rate of 28%. To put this all in perspective, Christchurch City Council will collect $415 mln in rates from existing ratepayers.

SMILES ACROSS THE BOARD
Equity markets are universally higher today in our time zone. The NZX is up +0.5%, the ASX is up +0.8% and Tokyo is up +1.3%. None of the 11 public equity markets are lower as we report.

BIG MISTAKE
Tower has to refund 23,000 customers, after having incorrectly calculated its multi-policy discounts since October 2014. No indication from the company of what this will cost them, but they are an insurer who is taking many knocks at present, and this latest one won't help their capital position.

LONG WHOLESALE RATES DIP
There were no changes in wholesale swap rates today, except for a -2 bps fall for 7 and 10 year terms. The 90-day bank bill is unchanged at 2.21%. You can find our chart for all terms of swap rates here. However, yields on NZGBs did fall further today for the 2023s, 2025s, 2027s and 2033s. These falls ranged from -2 bps to -4 bps.

NZ DOLLAR STABLE
Little change again today for our currency. The NZD/USD is still at 72.9 USc. On the cross rates, it is trading at 94.6 USc, and is at 64.9 euro cents. The TWI-5 is 75.8. Check our real-time charts here.

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