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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; Kiwibank cuts 1yr TD rate, farm & lifestyle block sales slip, S&P likes regulatory upgrade, new retirement tool, swap rates steepen, NZD holds

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; Kiwibank cuts 1yr TD rate, farm & lifestyle block sales slip, S&P likes regulatory upgrade, new retirement tool, swap rates steepen, NZD holds

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Nothing to report today. But we did notice that HSBC has a notice on their website saying their floating and revolving credit rates are rising by +10 bps at the end of the month.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
The other shoe dropped today for Kiwibank. After cutting fixed term mortgage rates which we noted on Friday, they advised their one year term deposit rate is also cut, falling -5 bps to 3.40%.

TAME FARM SALES
There were 167 farms sold in March, down -7% from the same month a year ago. Although lower, this level was essentially held up by sales in the Bay of Plenty, and in the Manawatu/Whanganui region. Prices/ha by both region and type of farm are here. Dairy farm selling prices seem to be holding up well.

LIFESTYLE BLOCKS GOING OUT OF STYLE
There were 750 lifestyle blocks sold nationally in March, the traditional high season, but that was -15% fewer than in March 2017. The trend was similar in most regions although a little more pronounced in Auckland, where sales in the first three months of this year were down -30% compared to the same period of last year and down -43% compared to the same period of 2016.

A NEW TOOL
Today we released our new Retirement Calculator, which gives you an easy way to assess whether you are likely to be on track with saving for when work ends. It is KiwiSaver friendly and accounts for NZ Super payments as well. It will show you how long your savings will last (your age) before you are relying solely on NZ Super.

ADDRESSING LIQUIDITY
We also have an update on how the Sydnex platform is growing, a tool that allows investors to buy and sell unlisted 'alternative asset' like property syndication shares. Liquidity is their big downside, and this tool steps up to address that deficiency.

FROM 'ADEQUATE' TO 'STRONG'
Due to recent regulatory decisions and a consistent track record of regulatory resets, the New Zealand regulatory landscape for the country's electricity and gas networks is now more mature, predictable, and strong, as well as being stable and transparent. That is the updated view of Standard & Poor's, who have now assigned a higher regulatory advantage score of 'Strong' for New Zealand regulated utilities. That will especially help Transpower, Vector, and Powerco.

NO CONFIDENCE
The FMA has applied to the High Court to place the Forestlands companies numbered 2-20 into liquidation. They say are doing this because at this point it has no confidence in the director to manage the relevant interests appropriately between the director, the entities associated with him, ‘B’ shareholders and creditors of the Forestlands companies.

CREDIT CARD USE
Billings on New Zealand-issued credit cards were up only +2% in March from the same month a year earlier. The miserly growth would have been less than half that if it wasn't for the spending Kiwi travelers are doing on overseas getaways. The restraint hasn't stopped personal balances growing +5.8% in a year, although so far we are not letting proportionally more of that balance accrue high-rate interest. That proportion is still near its all-time low.

MORE THAN JUST SEASONAL SHIFTS?
Lamb prices are holding at their highest level in six years in processor schedules although store lamb prices at saleyards have tumbled in the past couple of weeks. And beef prices (Bull and Steer) are also waning quickly too.

LEAVE TRUMP BEHIND
Ex RBNZ Governor Alan Bollard who is now the APEC supremo, says the TPP partners are all keen to get the new Agreement started - without waiting for the US.

BENCHMARK INTEREST RATES STEEPEN FURTHER
Local swap rates steepened today. The two year rate is unchanged, the five year is up +2 bps, the ten year is up +4 bps. The UST 10yr yield is now at 2.98%, (+6 bps). The Aussie Govt 10 yr is now at 2.86% (up +4 bps). The China 10 yr is also up +4 bps to 3.56%. The NZ Govt 10 yr is up +5 bp at 2.93%. The 90 day bank bill rate is eased -1 bp to 2.05% today.

BITCOIN RISES
The bitcoin price is now at US$8,840 which is up +6.1% than this time Friday, but most of that rise happened at the weekend. During today, it has flat lined.

NZ DOLLAR UNCHANGED
The NZD is little changed from the levels it opened this morning. It is now at 72.1 USc. Ditto on the cross rates where we at 93.9 AUc and at 58.7 euro cents. That has the TWI-5 stable at 73.5.

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11 Comments

9 years of threatened mortgage interest rates rises - to no avail.
Maybe soon banks will pay the borrower interest for the home loan.

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Is New Zealand heading backwards to 1970's -type labour relations ?

After over 20 years of peaceful and stable workplace relations , we seem to have had a disproportionate number of strikes recently

Port Workers at Littleton
Bus drivers
Train drivers
Doctors on a go slow

and now nurses are voting to strike .

Jacinda Ardern needs to show leadership ........ her honeymoon with the Kiwi public is fast ending and she should take a leaf out of Ms Clarke's book who took no truck with disruptive Trade Union militancy wreaking havoc on the economy

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Perhaps there's a reason why people feel the need to strike. Maybe they are under financial stress or some other reason.

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Our no mortgage household has base expenditure of $70,000 per annum, which could be cut to circa $50,000 in need. I don't see bus and train drivers coming close to living well in Auckland, after rent. I'd like to see them get a meaningful wage increase to widen the gap from beneficiaries and reward their productive choices.

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Ex Expat, yes exactly!. Our entry level Firefighters, Nurses, Train Drivers, School Teachers and Policemen stand a better chance under the Coalition. Efforts to supply more affordable housing together with sustainable wage settlements should shove things along nicely. Nine years of neglecting those who power our infrastructure won't be fixed in a night.

Sadly, all those donations you made to the National Party and in return nothing more than asset bubbles and a Waterview Tunnel to show for it....

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Take your blinkers off Poppy, the COL isn't offering these people meaningful increases, but it's just more palatable to them because its their own political tribe doing them over. As for affordable housing, surely you jest. Twatford isn't the messiah, he's just a naughty boy whose sermon is accepted literally but he hasn't performed a single miracle yet, and he won't. I would quote the bible phrases about false gods but this is not the place.

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Ex Expat, lol - you come across as a frustrated pooch. The more you dig for filth, the more hope, vision, and responsibility are unearthed.

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Perhaps retired Poppy you are a retired government employee ? In my view the folk you list above earn much more than their equivalents in the private sector. Those private sector employees pay those big salaries through tax. Most unfair.
As for powering the infrastructure, well almost everybody does that, not just your privileged list.

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Ex Epat, here is another one to keep you company ;-)

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Thats rich. We have had 9 years of asset owners and business 'elite' gorging themsleves. An economy built by key and his poodles based on house flipping, foreign asset sales and harbouring corrupt cash.

And now joe public is starting to wake up. Well overdue I'd say........

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