A review of things you need to know before you go home Tuesday; another floating rate rise, more TD rate changes, expect to live longer, more houses everywhere, higher inflation expectations, swaps rise

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The Co-operative Bank has increased its floating rate by +10 bps to 5.75%.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Westpac followed ASB and changed a range of term deposit rates, some up, some down. Details here.

RECORD LOW BIRTH RATE
Stats NZ updated the nation's birth rate as at December 2016 and that showed it at a record low level. Part of that is a dramatic reduction in the teenage birth rate which has more than halved since 2008. Our death rate is also trending lower although not at a record low in December. Our overall birth rate is down to 12.65 per 1000 population while our death rate is at 6.64 per 1000 population. (The teenage birth rate is now just a touch under 16 per 1000.)

A LONGER RETIREMENT
Statistics NZ also released its 2014-2016 life tables which shows life expectancy at birth for females is now 83.4 years and 79.9 years for males. More importantly for you, if you are aged 45, you can expect to live to at least aged 82.7 if you are male and to 84.6 years if you are female. If you are aged 65 and male, expect to live unlit at least 84.3 years and if female, to 86.5 years. These are medians, so half will live longer. And you should probably add some years to these figures; Stats NZ works out this detail based on the records of people who have recently died. The sample of those alive might be more meaningful if you are still in that group!

STANDARDS CLAMPDOWN
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority has cancelled the registration of Linguis International Institute as a PTE. The NZQA quality assurance process identified serious concerns in relation to educational performance and compliance with NZQA rules. It is the third such institution to be closed by officials recently.

ANOTHER DROP IN THE BUCKET
The Government plans to build 34,000 houses in Auckland over next decade on land currently with 8,300 state homes on it. That will raise the number of state houses to 13,600 with the rest sold off into the open market. But over ten years means this project alone will only go a small way to solving the housing imbalances in the Queen City.

THE TOWN THAT CAN
Auckland may be falling short of building the new houses it requires, but Queenstown isn't. The Queenstown-Lakes Housing Accord, with six months of the original accord still to run, will likely meet the target of 1750 new residential sections and homes in the three years to October 2017. The monitoring reports released today show 1634 consents have been issued to date and, with six months to go, the target is likely to be exceeded.

CHRISTCHURCH CAN TOO
Building can start on a $300 mln, 600-home development at Riccarton Racecourse after the Government approved the final step for the Christchurch Racecourse Reserve Trustees and Ngāi Tahu Property initiative. Yesterday Cabinet approved the Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Order 2017, which lifts the land’s reserve status and allows the development to start.

EXPECTING FASTER RISES IN THE CPI, BUT SLOWER RISES IN HOUSE PRICES
The latest RBNZ survey of inflation expectations has revealed a sharp drop in what people thing will happen to house prices. This survey says a +3% rise is expected over the next year, and that is down from +5% three months ago. As for general inflation, the survey see's respondents expecting it to rise to over 3% within a year, and to over 3.7% in over five years.

WHOLESALE RATES RISE
The run of wholesale rate drops ended today. Swap rates are up +2 bps for terms of 2 years and longer, except the ten year which is up +3 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate however is up +1 bp today to 1.99%.

NZ DOLLAR FIRMS AGAIN
The NZD is still in its general range although with a further slightly firming trend. Against the greenback it is now at 69 USc. On the crosses we are at 93 AUc, and 62.8 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now just above 73.8.

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