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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; four shift rates, Auckland house prices on the edge, Aussie auction activity revives, carrot prices jump, swap rates slip, NZD holds

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; four shift rates, Auckland house prices on the edge, Aussie auction activity revives, carrot prices jump, swap rates slip, NZD holds

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today. If you normally skip it, it is worth checking out the 'Wholesale Rates' section today.

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The Police Credit Union raised their one year rate.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank, ASB (and BankDirect), NZCU South all changed rates today. Kiwibank shifted their 3.7% rate from 5 months to 7 months. ASB dropped their 18 month rate by -5 bps, but raised all longer rate by up to +15 bps. NZCU South raised rates by +5 bps for all rates 18 months to 3 years.

DEFLATION LOOMS IN AUCKLAND HOUSING
House sales volumes edged up +2% between January and February (seasonally adjusted) but were still down -14% from February last year. Activity in the Auckland market, in particular, continues to weaken, with seasonally adjusted sale volumes in the region now at their lowest level since October 2011. Auckland median house prices declined for 4th consecutive month. Auckland's median house price is down -7.8% from $868,000 in October to $800,000 in February. In fact, as one reader pointed out, if they stay at this level in March, that will mean house prices will have fallen year-on-year.

SECOND WIND
Today's REINZ data suggests a tailing off of real estate activity in New Zealand, something similar to what happened six months ago in Australia. But now CoreLogic is reporting rising Aussie activity, based on rising auction clearance rates in the state capital cities. The national clearance rate across the capital cities was 81% in the week to March 12, up from 75% a week earlier. These are much higher clearance rates than what we see here. Things are hotting back up across the ditch.

HOUSE BUILDING GROWTH TO SLOW
NZIER's latest consensus forecasts show that high building construction and funding costs are expected to see annual growth in residential construction investment to fall from +13.9% to just +0.4% in 2020.

A FIVE YEAR HIGH
Stats NZ today reported food prices rose +2.2% in the year to February, the fastest annual increase since December 2011. The turn higher has been led by price increases for fruit, vegetables and dairy products. In fact vegetables are up +12% year-on-year led by a range of items, including carrots, which were up by an amazing +51%. Stats NZ marked the jump by changing the colour of its website to orange! (beta-carotine).

REGIONS SHINE
The ASB / Main Report Regional Economic Scoreboard ranks 16 regions based on employment, construction, retail trade and house prices. In the report for the December quarter, Nelson and Tasman were first and second because of their horticulture, wine-making, tourism and building sectors. Waikato, Gisborne and the West Coast rounded out the top five. This is one report where low house prices are presented as a positive.

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
You can check out how well our public services are performing, and see the targets that have been set for them, here.

USING YOU TO KEEP TABS ON YOU
Anti money laundering authorities in Canada are combing through the social media posts of people who move large amounts or come into apparent sudden wealth. Your online life is now evidence in the AML/CFT battle.

WHOLESALE RATES SLIP
Local swap rates have fallen -2 bps across the whole curve today. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.96%.

NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The NZD is holding at 69.2 USc. On the cross rates we are at 91.7 AUc, and at 64.7 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is now at 74.8 which is where it was at the open today. Check our real-time charts here or see below.

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

Daily exchange rates

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Source: RBNZ
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End of day UTC
Source: CoinDesk

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5 Comments

$ 3.54 / kg ! ... where the heck does the Dept. of Sadistics buy their carrots from ... and even so , that's a small price to pay for such a humble versatile little vegetable with 101 uses around the home ... 102 if you eat them ...

... I mean , if there's no beasts wandering about the garden which you can bash over the head and whack onto the fire pit ... eat a carrot instead ... hours of fun and laughter for the whole family ... seeing who can chomp the loudest on a simple root vegetable ....CCCCCCCCCCcccrrrrrrrruuuuunnnnnCCCCCCHHHH .... happy days ....

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The BOJ appears to be joining other banks that are seeking to jumpstart the "carry trade" for local banks and pension institutions, by steepening the yield curve. The step-back from buying super-long bonds, those with more than 10 years to maturity, comes after Governor Kuroda and his colleagues said in September that an “excessive” decline in the yields has placed a heavier burden on companies seeking to meet pension obligations. Read more

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It's as if the Yen is completely broken by the BOJ policies. Pensioners will have to concentrate on theft to maintain their standard of living.

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DEFLATION LOOMS IN AUCKLAND HOUSING
NOOOOOOO house prices only go up so I have been told over and over again at many a Jaffa BBQ

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Worthwhile knowing that the Police Credit has raised their one year mortgage rate.
What was the rate before and what is it now!!!!!
Can anyone be with the Police Credit?????

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