Key Points this Week

Key Points this week:
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
US Bank SVB- Silicon Valley Bank was forced to close last weekend by regulators over concerns of solvency. SVB is the 16th largest US bank with 210B in assets. Following this was the closure of another US bank closure Signature Bank also based on liquidity issues, this bank’s financial position however was not as bad as SVB.
US Inflation cooled in February to 6.0% down from 6.4% y/y but remains stubbornly high. The challenge for the Federal Reserve is how to best slow the economy.
NZ National house prices were lower in the month of February down 13.9% y/y to 762,000
New Zealand GDP ending Dec 2022 came in light at -0.6% compared to -0.2% predicted.
US Retail Sales fell 0.1% in February to 0.4% from 0.3% offering another reason for the Fed to pause hikes.
ECB members raised the interest rate by 50 points last night to 3.50% pushing borrowing costs to the highest levels since 2008.
Predictions are for 2023 China GDP forecast to rise from 5.5% to 6.0%.
The Japanese Yen (JPY) has been the best performing currency this week while the Euro (EUR) has been the worst performer