A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; no local rate changes, house price falls, used import sales slow, Council revenues up, cheaper money, less credit stress, swap rates slip, NZD rises

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
None here either.

TAILING OFF I
The average value of a New Zealand house dropped -1.6% over winter according to QV. Values are down in Auckland and Christchurch, up in Wellington. They say Auckland sellers are now 'adjusting expectations and are more open to negotiation'.

TAILING OFF II
There were 13,368 used imports sold in August, down a chunky -7.7% on the numbers sold in August 2017. That makes it seven months in a row where year-on-year sales data for this class of car has failed to match the same month last year. However, some are saying this is more of a supply-induced slowdown, with stink bugs having spread to more corners of the globe, and this being the first season where we can iron out the kinks in fumigation procedures.

GROWTH INDUSTRY
The latest update from Stats NZ on local authority revenue shows them rising at a healthy clip to June. Revenue from rates and "regulatory income" (that is, fees and fines) up +5.3% and the fastest rate of increase in years. Of course, it will rise even faster in future because the new Auckland regional fuel tax started in July. Local government will be getting revenue increases far above the growth in the economy, which may actually be slowing.

CHEAPER MONEY
Treasury today tendered $100 mln in 2040 inflation-linked bonds ("linkers") and they yielded a paltry 1.80% (plus CPI inflation). A year ago they were yielding 2.36% plus inflation. At the prior tender, it was 1.95%. Demand is healthy, with bids for $263 mln.

EVEN CHEAPER
Yesterday, we reported on an ASB bond issue, and we should note that we had an error in our summary, They were not subordinated as noted here, rather they rank equally with all other unsecured creditors ("unsecured, unsubordinated") like term deposit holders. (My error). But the low cost of 3.31% was reported accurately. Today, Toyota Finance also completed a bond deal that saw them pay 3.17% for $100 mln of five year unsecured unsubordinated Notes that are rated AA-.(same rating as ASB's issue). Car sales in New Zealand are not going to be restrained by the cost of debt.

LESS STRESS, BUT YOUNGER
Debt reporter illion (formerly Dun&Bradstreet) has been analysing New Zealand bankruptcies to a deeper degree than our own analysis. They report consumer stress is easing significantly nationwide, although there was a sharp rise among the under 25s. They show that bankruptcies (and NAPs) were down more than -11% in Auckland in the year to June, down -1% in Christchurch and down -24% in Hamilton. These are the only cities where the totals exceed 100 for the year. Their analysis shows personal bankruptcies for individuals aged between 18 and 24 years rose +67%, marking the fourth consecutive year of significant increases. In FY2014 less than 20 people in this age bracket declared bankruptcy, whereas the most recent figure for FY2018 is 207. On that basis, the under 25s now make up more than 6% of all bankruptcies, up from virtually nothing four years ago.

MORE HIKES
ANZ Australia has outdone Westpac by raising variable home loan interest rates by +16 bps. Westpac had hit their customers earlier with a +14 bps hike. And just in, CBA has announced a +15 bps hike. Most smaller Aussie banks have already moved up, so it is only the NAB yet to move. The RBA held its official rate unchanged on Tuesday. In all cases the banks are blaming "higher funding costs".

SWAP RATES LOWER
Swap rates are lower by -1 bp across the board today. The UST 10yr is up +1 bps at 2.91%. The UST 2-10 curve is now just over +25 bps. The Aussie Govt 10yr is at 2.58% (unchanged after yesterday's sharp rise), the China Govt 10yr is at 3.64% (down -1 bp), while the NZ Govt 10 yr is at 2.57%, down -1 bp. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.90%.

BITCOIN DROPS
The bitcoin price is at US$6,441, down -12.7% from this time yesterday.

NZD RISING
The NZD has risen back to 66.1 USc. On the cross rates we are firmer as well at 91.7 AUc, and holding at 56.7 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 back up at 69.8.

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