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90 seconds at 9 am; Volcker rule enacted; Fed official hints at tapering; No TPP deal; Lenders want in Welcome Home Loans scheme; Mixed picture in China

90 seconds at 9 am; Volcker rule enacted; Fed official hints at tapering; No TPP deal; Lenders want in Welcome Home Loans scheme; Mixed picture in China

Here's our summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am including news US regulators are enacting the Volcker rule but many details are still to be worked out. This law bans proprietary trading by large banks, attempting to stop them from trading to profit for their own accounts while allowing them to continue making markets for clients.

James Bullard, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President and Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voting member who has supported the Fed’s money printing, says an improving US job market has increased the chances of a reduction in the Fed’s US$85 billion per month bond purchases. But he says any cut should be modest because inflation is too low.

The FOMC next meets on December 17 and 18. See more here on the potential for the Fed to taper.

Fed officials will be watching US government budget talks closely, with Congressional negotiators again battling to reach agreement, this time to prevent a government shutdown on January 15.

Attempts to reach a Pacific-wide Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal by the end of the year have failed. New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser maintains, however, that significant progress was made at talks in Singapore over the last four days. TPP Ministers and negotiators will next meet in January.

Hot on the heels of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand deciding to exempt new house builds from its restrictions on banks’ high loan-to-value ratio mortgage lending, the NZ Herald reports five lenders want to join Housing New Zealand’s Welcome Home Loan first-home buyer scheme. Among the big banks only Westpac and Kiwibank currently offer these loans. The Government has capped the number of Welcome Home Loans available to 2,400 for the year to June 2014. Some 200 loans were applied for last month versus just 54 in November last year.

There was a mixed picture on the Chinese economy overnight with retail sales unexpectedly accelerating in November and industrial output rising less than expected. According to official statistics, factory production rose 10% year-on-year, compared with analysts’ median projection of 10.1%. Retail sales rose 13.7%.

The New Zealand dollar starts at about US83.31 cents, nearly A91c, with the trade weighted index at 77.94.

The best place to stay up to date with today's events is by following our Economic Calendar here »

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12 Comments

OK

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Can you believe any statistics out of China.Their is a huge lack of transparency in China in all aspects of life  which is still controlled by the communist party.

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yes.. u are right about that....        

But one can see a shift  in policy from the top... ( with the new leadership) .  Maybe a slight shift away from being an "export driven economy" model ...  to generating internal demand..and investing overseas.

A shift away from the $US  and an accelerating trend of investing in Foreign "hard assets".

Just guesses on my part..

 

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OilyN, please take this as a friendly warning. By posting such comments on various stories you are getting pretty close to crossing the line from humour to being a troll. For your reference, here's our commenting policy - http://www.interest.co.nz/news/65027/here-are-results-our-commenting-po…

Cheers.

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Today I learned that if you don't invest in property you are a troll. Haha

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So what are you saying, relative to property speculators, Trolls are quite productive?

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Or is there a troll bubble forming?  Novembers goat and pygmy bubbles have burst. 

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Peak trolls! If we arn't careful we will be reduced to being harrassed by gremlins.

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What a deep, dark, question......

Lets see, one I consider parasitic and will end up living under a bridge.......oh wait.......

regards

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Come on Gareth, that's a little light banter. There are others on this site who have distinctly troll like characteristics who you are more than happy to keep feeding.

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You are correct;they are changing and one would hope so.

In 2010 of the 100 largest publicy traded Chinese companies only 1 was not majority owned by the state and of the 129 major state enterprises over half had chairmen that were appointed by the communist party.

Cronyism at it's best.

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How many other statistics can you trust?

 

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