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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; TSB Bank raises rates, election date set, jobs growth strong, regional house prices up, swaps slip, NZD stays high

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; TSB Bank raises rates, election date set, jobs growth strong, regional house prices up, swaps slip, NZD stays high

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
TSB Bank raised almost all its fixed rates today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
NBS and NZCU South both raised term deposit rates.

A NO-SURPRISES ELECTION DATE
September 23 has been set as the 2017 election date. National says it would again work with Act, United Future and Maori Party. It said it would talk to Winston, but that NZ First would be 'an unlikely partner'.

VERY IMPRESSIVE JOBS GROWTH
In the December quarter there was a rise in the number of people looking for jobs. That pushed up our already high participation rate and it also pushed up the unemployment rate. The numbers employed rose by +138,700 in the year, the number unemployed rose by +15,000, pushing up the total employed labour force by almost +6%, far faster than our population growth. In fact, since modern consistent records began in 1987 we have never seen employment grow at such a fast level. This rate may not be sustainable. Meanwhile, wage growth was a modest +1.6% but is sure to pick up when the jobs growth limits are reached, probably quite soon. The underlying strength is reinforced by detail that shows growth is becoming more wide spread across industries (now it is not only construction), and people are spending much less time unemployed than previously. It is a remarkable story; there's been nothing like it in well over 30 years.

REGIONS BUOYANT, AUCKLAND NOT
QV reports
that house prices rose everywhere except Auckland and Hamilton. The average value of homes has fallen for two consecutive months on Auckland's North Shore, Waitakere and Manukau and in most of Hamilton as those markets cool. Meanwhile, realestate.co.nz confirms the trend is continuing it later asking price details; up everywhere but Auckland.

THE SLIPPAGE GROWS
WMP prices slipped further today on the NZX derivatives market.

NZ SUPER FUND RETURNS 13.2%

The NZ Super Fund announced that it returned 13.2% over the 2016 calendar year after costs and before NZ tax. The Fund finished 2016 at NZ$32.7 billion. Since inception in 2003 the Fund has returned 9.9% p.a., and is ahead of its two performance benchmarks, which are a market reference portfolio return and the Treasury Bill return. It has exceeded the reference portfolio return by $5.3 billion and the Treasury Bill return by $16.1 billion. The NZ Super Fund is now worth more than double the $14.88 billion the Government has contributed to it.

'BE MORE AMBITIOUS'
High-growth councils have until 31 March to submit final proposals for a share of the Government's $1 bln Housing Infrastructure Fund. Council constraints in financing the necessary infrastructure - the water supply, storm water, waste water and roading - can slow down the opening up of new housing areas, which is why the Government announced the Housing Infrastructure Fund last year. Eligible councils have already given an early indication of their interest, with indicative proposals amounting to $1.79 bln. Ministers have encouraged councils to be more ambitious in their final proposals.

OPPORTUNITY IN MT ALBERT
Geoff Simmons of Gareth Morgan's Opportunities Party is to contest the Mt Albert by-election.

CHINA NOT LAGGING
The expansion of China's factory sector is continuing, although in January it has been at a slightly slower pace. Their service sector is also expanding at a sustained level but at the much faster pace it has had over the whole of last year. Also, read this.

'HEALTHY GAINS'
Here is a link to CoreLogic's Australian review of house prices.

WHOLESALE RATES SLIP
In trading today, all of yesterday's rises were wound back. But the 90 day bank bill is up +1 bp again, now touching 2.00%.

NZ DOLLAR STAYS HIGH
The surprise rise in the unemployment rate did cause the NZD to drop when the announcement came through. But that only took the top off the earlier rises and we are basically at the same level we were at, at this time yesterday. It is now at 72.7 USc level. On the cross rates, we are still high at 96.2 AUc, and at 67.3 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is still over 78. Check our real-time charts here.

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

Daily exchange rates

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End of day UTC
Source: CoinDesk

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5 Comments

So we passed the 1 trillion mark in housing wealth for the second time .

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Don't worry if house prices go down (and then back up) we can pass it for the third time as well. It does seem a bit silly.

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Investigations at Cera, feeding at trough.

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A not so pristine picture of the nation.

Backyard butchers and vigilante farmers: stock rustling on the rise in New Zealand

Last year thousands of valuable farm animals were poached from isolated farms to await slaughter in ‘abhorrent’ and illegal conditions Read more

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National stopping contributions to the super fund was at best financial mismanagement or at worst incompetence
Why when you are in the cheapest loan interest rate and highest asset growth would you do that.

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