A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; no fx intervention, no monorail, higher FBT, dodgy rating practices, sharp falls in swap rates

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

NO INTERVENTION YET
The April Reserve Bank balance sheet published today shows the central bank has not yet intervened in the currency markets yet.

NO MONORAIL
The Fiordland monorail project has been shutdown by the Government today. It failed both economic and environmental criteria. Three cheers from me. No only am I someone who loves the Fiordland wilderness experience, there are no commercially successful monorail systems in the world (that I know of).

NEW MINIMUM WAGE ORDER
The Government is moving to clamp down on a minimum wage payment rort, bringing in a fortnightly standard. It is designed to protect casual, or part-time workers.

FBT ON LOW INTEREST LOANS FROM EMPLOYERS
Now that mortgage rates are rising, the Government has moved the new interest rate used to calculate fringe benefit tax on low-interest loans provided by employers up to 6.13% from 1 July 2014. 

RATING ISSUES
In a review of local authority rating practices, the Auditor General has identified some significant issues. "During the year, it became apparent that there were several widespread problems with rating practices. Our audit work on rates revenue found that most local authorities had some level of compliance failure. Problems ranged from potentially serious legislative breaches, which created a significant financial risk to the local authority's revenue, through to low-risk legal breaches."

WHOLESALE RATES FLATTEN
Wholesale swap rates were down again today, and by quite a bit. 2-10 yr swaps were down 4 or 5 bps today although the one yrs were unchanged. These moves follow last night's sharp bond yield falls on Wall Street. The 90 day bank bill rate rose another 2 bps today and is now at 3.43%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar has slipped today, especially this afternoon against the Aussie where their latest capital expenditure data came in much better than expected. The USD is at 84.9 USc, the Aussie is now at 91.5 AUc. The TWI is at 79.4.