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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; rate rises, AML non-compliance, 2.2% inflation, Bunnings' porkies alleged, Budget date set, swaps unchanged, NZD slips back

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; rate rises, AML non-compliance, 2.2% inflation, Bunnings' porkies alleged, Budget date set, swaps unchanged, NZD slips back

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The Co-operative Bank changed its 3 and 5 year fixed rates, raising them by +10 bps. Resimac has raised its fixed rates for terms 3 to 5 years by between +15 and +19 bps.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
For three years and four years, the Co-operative Bank raised their TD offer also by +10 bps.

15% NON COMPLIANT
The Financial Markets Authority has issued a formal warning to 12 reporting entities under section 80 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. The FMA requested audit information from 77 reporting entities. This is just under 10% of the reporting entities that the FMA supervises. A risk-based approach was adopted to select the 77.

'ALL SMOKE & NO FIRE'
Prices from the ANZ Bank unofficial Inflation Gauge rose +0.5% in January and are up +2.2% year-on-year. The largest contribution came from higher tobacco and cigarette prices, as has become typical in January. The underlying gauge was flat however. Oddly, rents have been leveling off in this series, which is somewhat puzzling given tightening housing supply.

AN AUSSIE CAUGHT OUT IN NZ
The Commerce Commission has filed 45 charges in Auckland District Court against Bunnings (NZ) alleging it misled consumers by advertising the prices of its goods as being the lowest in the market. The Commission alleges that Bunnings’ advertising at its stores nationwide along with advertising campaigns on television, radio, online, and in newspapers and catalogs gave an overall impression that it offered the lowest prices for its products, when this was not true. The Commission’s investigation focused on the period 1 July 2014 to 28 February 2016.

BUDGET DATE ANNOUNCED
The Minister of Finance today announced that this year's [election] budget will be presented on May 25. (This year's general election will be held on September 23, 2017.)

SETTLING IN AT THIS LEVEL
Today's dairy auction saw dairy prices eke out a small gain of just +1.3% in US dollar terms. Looking ahead, economists see an extended period of consolidation at this level as 'possible' .

WHOLESALE RATES UNCHANGED
Wholesale rates are unchanged today (and despite the soft Wall Street trend earlier in the day). The 90 day bank bill rate is also unchanged at 2.03%. This is quite unusual; we haven't had a no-change day for swaps since November 2014.

NZ DOLLAR FALLS BACK
Reversing yesterday's leap, the Kiwi dollar has fallen back today to 73.1 USc. Similarly on the cross rates, we are back at 95.7 AUc, and at 68.4 euro cents. The TWI-5 index has settled back at 78.4. Check our real-time charts here.

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Daily exchange rates

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Source: CoinDesk

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4 Comments

Six stories about housing , a masquerading mortgage broker article and a chicken farm ponzi scheme, or is that eight ponzi schemes.

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And a partridge in a pear tree

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Bunnings cheating ?

No !

We should be investigating the entire building material supply sector , its a 3 way cartel .

How else can anyone explain how building materials are up to 30% cheaper in Australia?

And dont give me the distance and small market nonsense , when almost every other imported thing from clothes and shoes to food , Fuel , white goods and furniture is reasonably priced by Aussie standards

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Would be interesting if you could separately identify EBIT by product category for the likes of Fletchers and see if there is much variation for product lines where there is genuine competition from direct importers or disrupter model local businesses. In theory if there is duopoly pricing behaviour, you should see reduced EBIT in those product lines where the dominant supplier is prevented by competition from being the price setter.

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