Bernard Hickey delivers the key news from over the weekend in 90 seconds at 9am, including news that Quoteable Value has reported house values rose 0.2% in November from October and are up 4% from their April low. They remain 6% below their early 2008 peak.
QV says the spring surge in house sales has failed to materialise so far, partly because of too few listings in the major cities and too many listings in the provinces. However, I think rising unemployment and weak bank lending growth may keep a lid on both volumes and prices through the summer.
Meanwhile there was good news from the US employment market late on Friday night. Only 11,000 jobs were lost and the unemployment rate fell to 10% from 10.2% There's talk now the Fed may increase rates in 2010, Bloomberg reported.
Next year looks like the year of going cold turkey. The RBNZ is expected to hold the OCR on Thursday, but the outlook is key. Alan Bollard is expected to say he's sticking to his promise of not increasing the Official Cash Rate from its record low 2.5% until the latter part of next year.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.