Bernard Hickey reviews the day's business news with Duncan Garner at RadioLive, Thursday during drive-time, October 27, 2016.
You can hear their discussion here.
The NZX 50 is closing up 42 points, bouncing after yesterday's big drop.
The freight and courier sector of the economy is humming with all this population and spending growth, along with the rise of online shopping unleashing a whole heap of parcel sending. Freightways has just reported a 6% rise in first quarter revenues and a 10% rise in net profit.
The Reserve Bank's new 40% deposit requirement for landlords is now really starting to bite into lending growth. Figures out from the Reserve Bank today show lending to landlords fell to NZ$1.7 billion in September. It had been as high as NZ$2.7 billion in May. Other owner occupier lending is staying solid over NZ$3.3 billion though as homewoners who feel rich are spending up large at the hardware stores and the new car dealerships.
Interest only lending is still stubbornly high though. A year ago, almost 41% of all new lending was interest-only. That level of new lending fell to 39.8% in June, and to 37.6% by September 2016, according to RBNZ data released today. But of all existing lending, the level is stubbornly holding at over 28% of the $224 bln owed in residential mortgages. Even though interest rates are at record low levels, more than one in four don't want to pay even that.
New Zealand's trade deficit hit a record high NZ$1.4 billion in September as meat exports fell and Air NZ imported a Dreamliner.
This content was first released by RadioLive, and is here with permission.
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.