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A review of things you need to know before you go home Friday; mortgage rate changes; manufacturing survey; Labour's climate action; National's transport plan; APRA to investigate CBA; data breach; local rates lower; NZD up

A review of things you need to know before you go home Friday; mortgage rate changes; manufacturing survey; Labour's climate action; National's transport plan; APRA to investigate CBA; data breach; local rates lower; NZD up

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank and AMP Home Loans have increased their 1 yr special rate by +10 bps to 4.55%.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes to report here.

MANUFACTURING SURVEY
The actual volume of manufacturing sales in the June 2017 quarter was $26.6 bln, up +$2.3 bln or +9.4% from June 2016. In constant dollar terms, in the June 2017 quarter manufacturing sales were up +0.4% over the June 2016 quarter. On a seasonally adjusted basis, manufacturing sales rose +1.0% in the June 2017 quarter after a -0.2% fall in March 2017 quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, meat and dairy product manufacturing volumes rose by +8.2% seasonally adjusted. This coincided with higher prices for these commodities to take the current dollar value increase to +13.2%. Sales for petroleum and coal products and chemical polymer and rubber products, compared to the March 2017 quarter, were lower by -8.1% and -8.3% respectively.

LABOUR'S CLIMATE ACTION
Labour has set a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will be the core of the delivery mechanism for this target. They will follow an all sectors, all gases regime to reduce emissions and look to get the youth involved in taking practical steps to achieve the emissions target. For agriculture, specifically, the ETS will start by giving the sector 90% emissions free, to allow agriculture to bring emissions down without hurting its contribution to the economy. The second step will be to use findings from Government-backed science to reduce emissions without reducing output. Thirdly, farmers operating at best practice will be recognised and credited for the reductions they achieve. Federated Farmers have responded to this policy announcement by saying that the policy will cost farmers $83 mln in the first year and $830 mln every year once fully implemented. They believe that the policy will reduce competitiveness of New Zealand farmers, who are among the most efficient producers of food on the planet, against other export countries, who will likely produce more greenhouse gases than are reduced in New Zealand.

NATIONAL'S TRANSPORT PLAN
National has announced its transport policy that provides Auckland specific and National level policy. The Auckland projects include, National planning to declare the $955 mln Mill Road project a national highway, taking away the responsibility from Auckland Council, working with Auckland Council on the AMETI Eastern Busway and a mass transit solution between the city and Auckland airport and continuing the construction of the $3.4 bln City Rail Link project on the fastest possible timeline. At the national level, National promises to deliver the $10.5 bln Roads of National Significance project, complete $600 mln of work to fix 90 of the worst black spots around the country, with the aim of reducing road tolls, continue to invest at record levels in public transport and grow air links and urban cycleways.

APRA TO INVESTIGATE CBA
Former APRA boss John Laker and former head of ACCC Graeme Samuel have been appointed to an APRA panel to investigate CBA. The panel will look to identify any shortcomings in the "governance, culture and accountability frameworks and practices within CBA". The review has come as a result of numerous scandals involving the CBA over the last few years, including poor implementation of money laundering laws, unfair denial of life insurance claims and poor financial advice being provided to customers.

DATA BREACH
Equifax Inc, a provider of consumer credit scores, says that details of as many as 143 mln US consumers, nearly half the US population, were accessed by hackers between mid-May and July. Equifax said that criminals had exploited a US website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files that included names, social security numbers and driver's license numbers. Some other information, such as credit card numbers of around 209,000 US consumers, was also accessed. The company's shares fell by 19% in after-market trading after what could be one of largest data breaches in the US.

WHOLESALE RATES LOWER
Local swap rates have reversed some of yesterday's gains and are lower following the global trend overnight. The 2 yr rate is flat, 5 yr is down -3 bps and 10 yr is down -4 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate is down -1 bp to 1.94%.

NZ DOLLAR UP
The NZD is higher from this time yesterday at 73.1 USc. On the cross rates we are at 90.2 AUc and at 60.6 euro cents. The TWI-5 is at 74.6. The bitcoin price is up to US$4,628.

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11 Comments

Didn't National release their Auckland transport policies at Papakura Station about a month ago?

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Climate Inaction and Climate Change

Try this one - the money shot
https://twitter.com/AoDespair/status/905759827703590912

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Interest rates keep tracking lower.

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Er, am I missing something, but won't Labour policy move dairy and sheep and beef farming from grass fed in New Zealand to grain fed in the US and Europe? I don't see why that is a good thing.

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Dumb dumb dumb. But I guess it sounds good to the punters

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That's the issue, Belle. Urban voters have little notion of farming or, indeed, life outside the malls. So their ability to comprehend policy consequences like the transfer of some ag production to higher per-unit emitter countries, is zero.

Relentless positivity, and a 'hope and change' aura, is all they need to detect, in order to fill in their voting papers.

Consequences? Who they?

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Markets we sell in to are becoming more aware of social/environmental issues - for example;

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/95595998/NZs-apple-and-pear-industry-g…

and I'm guessing we will see more of this kind of scrutiny, including scrutiny on progress toward Paris commitments going forward.

It does seem we have lost sight of having once been world leading in terms of innovation in our agricultural sector in our race to deliver volume as opposed to value-add. I'd say anything we do to counter that race to the bottom direction must be good for us going forward.

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Interesting consequences. We were planning on building a house. This will be scuppered if Labour gets in. I have been rather critical of John Key over the years...the things he could have done...argh! So frustrating. Anyway I was happy with Bill, mostly. But Taxinda is scaring the bejesus outa me. Our bank manager is feeling the same way. Which further put the wind up me.

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Labour Party policy to the detriment of NZ. Same as their sabotage of the Electricity company share sales.

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At least it gives the Farmers Union something else to complain about.

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"When South Canterbury went under in 2010, triggering a $NZ1.6 billion government bailout, ....Torchlight was repaid its initial investment plus interest for a return of 26 per cent."
Well done, John Key's National Government.That's' how you ensure a career path for the future
http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/financial-services/geor…

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