{"id":337435,"date":"2026-03-19T13:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/337435\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:03:15","slug":"what-happened-thursday-interest-co-nz-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/337435\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened Thursday | interest.co.nz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).<\/p>\n<p>MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES<br \/>ANZ has raised its rate card today. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/personal-finance\/137696\/countrys-largest-mortgage-lender-raises-its-carded-home-loan-rates-too-more\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Details here<\/a>. So has HBS and Unity Money. All current mortgage rates are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/borrowing\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. And note, you can compare mortgage offers with our new calculator that takes into account other costs and cashback incentives, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/calculators\/home-loan-comparison-calculator\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>TERM DEPOSIT\/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES<br \/>ANZ has raised all its TD rates for 1-5 years, as did BNZ. So did Finance Direct and HBS. And\u00a0 we have reviewed where TD rates are at, at the moment, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/personal-finance\/137704\/household-term-deposit-balances-have-flat-lined-early-2024-now-bank-offer\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/saving\/term-deposits-1-to-9-months\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a>, for 1-5 years, they are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/saving\/term-deposits-1-to-5-years\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>GROWTH ONLY COMES FROM NON-PRIORITY AREAS<br \/>StatsNZ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/economy\/137692\/new-zealand%E2%80%99s-economy-grew-02-december-2025-quarter-rental-hiring-and-real-estate\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>\u00a0GDP rose just +0.2% in the December 2025 quarter to be +1.3% higher than a year ago, way less than expected. Rental, hiring and real estate services were the largest contributors. There is no momentum in this &#8216;recovery&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>VANISHING RETURNS<br \/>Residential property has become less attractive to investors as capital gains dry up.\u00a0Low returns on falling rents and rising interest rates, and potential negative cash flows from tax treatments, are reducing the appeal.<\/p>\n<p>COVID CROOK<br \/>A Tauranga man will serve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ird.govt.nz\/media-releases\/2026\/prison-time-for-tax-and-covid-offending\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">24 months\u2019 imprisonment for tax and COVID related offending<\/a>, with leave to apply for home detention.\u00a0Vincent Reynolds was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court on March 17 on ten fraud\/evasion charges.\u00a0Reynolds used or attempted to use false GST and income tax returns, false documents, made false COVID relief claims and provided altered bank statements to get money he wasn\u2019t entitled to.\u00a0In total he applied for more than $131,800 but received $84,265. He spent all the money on himself.<\/p>\n<p>BETTER THAN TDs<br \/>The 6 year CHFA bond we noted yesterday achieved a yield of 5.1% pa.<\/p>\n<p>TAKE A BREAK AND DO OUR QUIZ<br \/>Our quiz has been updated for this week&#8217;s edition. You can do it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/economy\/137632\/new-week-fresh-new-challenge-you-our-updated-quiz-join-your-fellow-readers-and-do-it\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. And a new one will be added every Monday.<\/p>\n<p>NZX50 TURNS SHARPLY LOWER<br \/>As at 3pm, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/investing\/137710\/here-are-key-changes-know-about-new-zealand-equity-market-gains-turners-vista\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">overall NZX50 index<\/a> is down -2.0% so far today. It is heading for a -1.2% drop over the past five working days, and down -1.4% from six months ago. From a year ago it is now up a net +8.3%. Market heavyweight F&amp;P Healthcare is down -3.9% so far today.\u00a0Gains from Turners, Vista, Investore Property and Genesis have been outweighed by sharp falls by Gentrack, F&amp;P Healthcare, Kathmandu and Auckland Airport.<\/p>\n<p>ARE YOU A BANKING &amp; FINANCE PROFESSIONAL?<br \/>You may wish to consider subscribing to our specialist daily newsletter. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/banking\/137570\/if-you-are-banking-or-finance-professional-we-have-daily-newsletter-just-you\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>COUNCILS &amp; NZTA ON ALERT<br \/>Since the start of March, the international bitumen price has jumped +50%, just saying. The only time it was higher was for a few days in June 2022 in the midst of pandemic lockdowns. This rise isn&#8217;t going to be for just a few days.<\/p>\n<p>MARGINALLY WORSE<br \/>In Australia,\u00a0their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abs.gov.au\/statistics\/labour\/employment-and-unemployment\/labour-force-australia\/feb-2026\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">jobless rate rose<\/a> to 4.3% in February, up from the 4.1% forecast and levels seen in the previous two months. This is back to the November level. Full time jobs rose fell -30,500 while part-time jobs rose +79,500. Their\u00a0 participation rate hit a four-month high of 66.9%. (As at December 2025, the NZ jobless rate was 5.4% and will be updated for Q1-2026 on May 6.)<\/p>\n<p>SWAP RATES FIRMER<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/charts\/interest-rates\/swap-rates\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Wholesale swap rates<\/a> are likely to be slightly higher today. Keep an eye on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/charts\/interest-rates\/swap-rates\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">our chart<\/a> below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. The 90 day bank bill rate was down -1 bps at 2.52% on Wednesday. Today, the Australian 10 year bond yield is up +8 bps at 4.99%. The China 10 year bond rate is down -1 bp at 1.82%. The Japanese 10 year bond is up +2 bps at 2.26% today. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.72%, up +5 bps from this time Wednesday. The RBNZ data is now &#8216;prior day&#8217; with the Wednesday rate down -8 bps at 4.60. The UST 10yr yield is up +9 bps from yesterday, now back up at 4.28%.<\/p>\n<p>EQUITIES DEEPLY NEGATIVE<br \/>The local equity market has fallen -1.9% in Thursday trade so far. The ASX200 is down -1.9% in afternoon trade. Tokyo has opened on Thursday down -2.8% in its opening trade. Hong Kong is down -1.5% and Shanghai is down -0.7%. Singapore is down -0.7%. Wall Street ended its Wednesday trade down -1.4% on the S&amp;P500. The world is paying a Trump incompetency price.<\/p>\n<p>OIL JUMPS<br \/>American oil prices have risen +US$4 with the WTI benchmark now at just under US$99\/bbl, while the international Brent price is up +US$10 to just over US$110.50\/bbl. Things are worse in the Persian Gulf and there are still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinetraffic.com\/en\/ais\/home\/centerx:57.4\/centery:27.6\/zoom:8\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">no ships transiting<\/a> the Straits of Hormuz, other than those with Iran&#8217;s blessing.<\/p>\n<p>CARBON PRICE DOWN<br \/>There have been more trades so far today on the secondary market, but the price has fallen -$2.50 to $39\/NZU. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/charts\/rural\/carbon-price\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">daily chart tracker<\/a> of the NZU price for carbon, courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emstradepoint.co.nz\/\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">emsTradepoint<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>GOLD DROPS HARD<br \/>In early Asian trade, gold has fallen -US$153\/oz and now back at US$4846\/oz. Silver is down -US$3.50 to US$76\/oz.<\/p>\n<p>NZD LOWER<br \/>The Kiwi dollar is down -50 bps from this time yesterday against the USD, now at just over 58.1 USc. Against the Aussie we are up +220 bps at 82.6 AUc. Against the euro we are down -10 bps at 50.7 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now just under 61.9 and down a net -30 bps from where we were this time yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>BITCOIN DROPS<br \/>The bitcoin price is now at US$71,040 and down -4.4% from this time yesterday. Volatility has been high at +\/- 3.0%.<\/p>\n<p>Select chart tabs<\/p>\n<p>                          US$<br \/>\n                            AU$<br \/>\n                            TWI-5<br \/>\n                            \u00a5en<br \/>\n                            \u00a5uan<br \/>\n                            \u20acuro<br \/>\n                            GBP<br \/>\n                            Bitcoin<\/p>\n<p>Select chart tabs<\/p>\n<p>                          1 year %<br \/>\n                            2 years %<br \/>\n                            3 years %<br \/>\n                            4 years %<br \/>\n                            5 years %<br \/>\n                            7 years %<br \/>\n                            10 years %<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/rural-news\/soil-moisture-animation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/soil-moisture-2026-02-14.gif\" title=\"click to go to animation page\"\/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>This soil moisture chart is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/rural-news\/soil-moisture-animation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">animated here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Keep abreast of upcoming events by following our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/economic-calendar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Economic Calendar here \u00bb<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[916,910,914,912,42,43,69,915,911,40,38,41,39,913],"class_list":["post-337435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-banking","tag-bonds","tag-borrowing","tag-currencies","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nz","tag-saving","tag-term-deposits","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-twi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}