A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Friday; Consumer confidence rises, sector credit & building consents mixed, Fletcher's provision, TVNZ's loss, NZ$ mixed

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you already work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).

MORTGAGE/LOAN RATE CHANGES
First Credit Union cut its one-year "special" mortgage rate to 6.75% from 6.99%, and its two-year rate to 6.35% from 6.50%. See all mortgage rates here.

TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
The Wairarapa Building Society cut its six-month rate 10 basis points to 5.70%, its one-year by 15 basis points to 5.50%, and its two-year rate by 20 basis points to 4.80%. All savings rates are here.

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE RISES
The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey rose four points in August. Although that's on top of a five-point increase in July, at 92.2 it's still well below its 10-year average of 109. Both the current and future conditions indexes rose, inflation expectations inched 0.1 percentage point higher to 3.8%, and expected house price inflation lifted to 2.8% from 2.4%.

SECTOR CREDIT A MIXED BAG
The latest monthly Reserve Bank sector credit data shows housing lending increased $623 million in July from June to $362.1 billion. The annual growth rate was 3.2%, unchanged from June. Consumer lending fell $11 million to $14.464 billion, with the annual growth rate down to 0.8% from 1.8%. Business lending also dropped, down $782 million to $134.736 billion. The annual growth rate was surprisingly 2.4% versus 2.2%. Agriculture lending rose $206 million to $63.688 billion, with annual growth at 0.4% versus 0.5%.

MIXED PICTURE FOR BUILDING CONSENTS
The latest building consents figures from Statistics NZ show consents were issued for 3352 new dwellings in July, up 53.9% from 2178 issued in June, and up 9.6% compared to the 3058 issued in July last year. However, on an annual basis they fell 22% in the July year to 33,921.

FLETCHER BUILDING SEES A$155M PROVISION FOR WA PIPE ISSUES
Fletcher Building says its subsidiary Iplex Pipelines Australia, alongside the Western Australian Government and industry stakeholders, has reached an in-principle agreement addressing plumbing failures occurring in some WA homes constructed with Typlex Pro-Fit pipe. Assuming this joint industry response is finalised, Fletcher Building expects to record a pre-tax provision of A$155 million in its full-year 2025 financial statements.

BIG ANNUAL LOSS FOR TVNZ
TVNZ posted a $85 million June-year net loss after tax following a $62.1 million non-cash impairment due to asset revaluations. The loss compares to a $1.7 million profit the previous year. Revenue fell $38.8 million to $288.859 million, while expenses were cut $9.9 million to $303.617 million. CEO Jodi O’Donnell says TVNZ is "cautiously planning for a stabilising of the economy and expect challenging market conditions to continue until the end of the calendar year." TVNZ continues "to be disciplined on our cost outlook and are working with our people to find solutions to a $30 million challenge in full-year 2025."

REPORT ON ACCESS TO BANK ACCOUNTS PROMISED
The Council of Financial Regulators (CoFR), consisting of the Reserve Bank, Financial Markets Authority, Commerce Commission, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and The Treasury, plans to publish an issues paper on access to basic bank accounts by the end of the year. It'll analyse domestic trends, international best practice approaches to basic banking, and identify options for CoFR agencies "to support an industry-led solution to this issue." 

NZX EQUITY MARKET UPDATE
Check out our quick update story on how the NZX is faring today, as at 3pm. We welcome comments on that update story.

NZ DOLLAR BIT WEAKER AGAINST GREENBACK & AUSSIE 
The Kiwi dollar is a little weaker against the greenback and Aussie dollar, compared to this time Thursday, and slightly stronger against the euro. At the time of writing it's at US62.67 cents versus US62.86c, at AU92.12c versus AU92.51c, and at €56.59c versus €56.45c.

SWAP RATES 
Our chart below will record the final positions today for wholesale swap rates.

CARBON PRICE SOFTER
The carbon price is at $60.50/NZU, down from $61/NZU this time on Thursday. See our new daily chart tracker of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of emsTradepoint.

BITCOIN UP SLIGHTLY
The bitcoin price is down a bit from where it was this time on Thursday at the time of writing, at US$59,049. 

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

Keep abreast of upcoming events by following our Economic Calendar here ».