A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; car buying surge, UFB skite, tax freedom, jobless rate unchanged, wholesale rates jerk steeper, NZD falls

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There are no changes to report today, so far.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There are no changes here either.

CORE FUNDING FINE
The RBNZ's monitoring of the banks' core funding ratio shows it is back up to near its higher levels at 86.4%.

SERIES INTERRUPTED
It is hard to tell much about last week's new home loan approval levels as it was a short week for the ANZAC mondayised break. But here is the detail anyway.

STILL NO COST RISES
Our hydro lake levels are ok for this time of year and electricity demand is stable. That means that wholesale electricity prices are -30% lower in early May than the same time a year ago. Energy demand per unit of GDP is falling. Energy company suggestions that 'prices will rise, so sign our fixed price contracts' are only for the gullible. In fact the slow decline in wholesale electricity pricing has been going on for about five years now, interrupted by some very well publicised but very brief rises.

CAR BUYING SURGE
Data on the level of used imported cars was out today and that was much more impressive than for new cars. 11,038 vehicles came in in April, +16% more than for the same month a year ago. You have to go back to 2005 to find a higher April. Clearly demand for used imports is very high at present.

BETTER ON THIS SIDE
One of the more impressive Government press releases came out today, probably to little notice. Our UFB fibre network is rolling our fast and many more people are signing up to it. The Rural Broadband Initiative is also making good progress. What this data highlights is how far ahead we are of Australia in this tech initiative.

'TAX FREEDOM'
Bracket creep helps push out the 2015 Tax Freedom Day to May 7, eleven days longer than in 2012. So does faster-rising local authority 'taxes'. The concept relates the tax-take to GDP so it is a very general measure, although it does allow country-by-country comparison. A briefly interesting curiosity.

PASSING ON THE COSTS
It is becoming clearer that we are all facing higher insurance premiums for cars, houses and contents. Insurers have used up their re-insurance mainly on the Canterbury rebuild and there is much more liability they are up for - and they don't want to use their own reserves (or go back to shareholders to recover excess dividends they paid in the past). So premiums will be rising.

STILL NOTHING TO REPORT
Just for the record, our weekly grocery cost monitoring is still not showing any upward price pressure. It will no doubt stay like that so long as the exchange rate stays relatively high. But we have enjoyed a four year run of generally stable or falling prices at the supermarket. We started this monitoring in June 2011.

NEW ASB MARKETING MANAGER AS CURZON DEPARTS
ASB's general manager of marketing, Anna Curzon, is leaving the bank at the end of the week to join Spark Ventures. Curzon, who has been at ASB since joining as a graduate trainee in 1997, is being succeeded by ASB's current head of brand & retail marketing, Shane Evans.

ASB'S STRONG BUSINESS, RURAL LENDING GROWTH CONTINUES
ASB's parent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, issued its third quarter trading update. Of ASB it said; "ASB business and rural lending growth remained above system and home loan growth was stronger." The CBA group recorded flat quarterly cash earnings of A$2.2 billion.

COMMERCE COMMISSION SEEKS ADVISORS ON MONOPOLIES
The Commerce Commission is setting up a panel of suppliers to provide consultancy and advisory services on regulatory issues. In a tender the Commission says it's looking for consulting firms or other consulting professionals, including academics, who have NZ or international experience in the economic regulation of monopoly infrastructure, specifically on electricity and gas transmission and distribution, airports, water or "other relevant sectors."

JOBLESS RATE UNCHANGED
There unemployment rate was reported higher than markets were expecting. Job growth was strong, but more people are entering the labour force with participation rates still touching 70%, a very high benchmark compared with many other developed economies. The surprise, along with slightly lower than expected wage inflation, saw our currency fall back again. While the dairy price result did not faze the markets, this labour force data did.

WHOLESALE RATES JERK STEEPER
Wholesale swap rates took a sharp turn steeper today. Short rates fell sharply, long rates rose sharply. 1 and 2 year rates were down -4 and -2 bps respectively, while 5, 7 and 10 year rates were up +2, +4 and +7 bps respectively. But the 90 day bank bill rate however was unchanged at 3.62%. Yields on Government bonds also rose strongly up +4 bps.

NZ DOLLAR FALLS
The New Zealand dollar has moved sharply lower today following the labour stats release. As of late this afternoon it is at 74.7 USc, 94.1 AUc, 66.8 euro cents, and the TWI-5 is now at 78.3. Check our real-time charts here.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.