Reserve Bank of New Zealand leaves interest rates on hold, building approvals rise, ASX ends lower after mixed result on Wall Street — as it happened

But if you're after even more business and finance news, here's what's coming up tonight on The Business:

• Samuel Yang explores the rise of the co-op and how they could challenge the supermarket stranglehold
• Rachel Pupazzoni speaks to Nic Hayes from Media Stable about the viability of Network 10, after its US parent Paramount Global sold itself to film production studio Skydance Pictures; and
• Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda unpacks how markets are interpreting the current speculation surrounding central banks and their respective inflation fights around the world.

Catch The Business on ABC News at 8:45pm, after the late news on ABC TV, and anytime on ABC iview.

We'll be back again with the blog tomorrow, but until then you can catch up on today's developments below, or download the ABC News app and subscribe to our range of news alerts for the latest news.

The ASX 200 has ended 0.2% lower at the close of trade on Wednesday to 7,816 points.

It was a mixed finish for the sectors, with six out of 11 sectors ending in positive territory. Technology had the largest gain (+0.5%) followed by consumer staples (+0.3%) and financials (+0.2%).

Meanwhile, education had the largest loss out of the sectors (-2.8%), followed by utilities (-1.2%), basic materials (-1.1%) and energy (-0.7%).

As for the top performing stocks of the day:

• Star Entertainment Group +2.5%
• Ingenia Communities +2.5%
• Red 5 +2.5%
• Perseus Mining +2.5%
• Telstra +2.4%

And the stocks with the greatest losses of the day:

• Insignia Financial -7.2%
• Orora -4.5%
• Champion Iron -3.3%
• Whitehaven Coal -2.9%
• Viva Energy -2.8%

The OECD employment report paints a bit of a grim picture for Australian pay packets, but there has been one highlight for the country — and that's our resilient labour market.

ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch told ABC News Channel that compared to other OECD countries, Australia's unemployment rate was a lot lower, even compared to where it was before the pandemic.

"That's quite different from what we're seeing in somewhere like Canada, where the unemployment rate has risen 1.5 percentage points to 6.4%, and Canada is where we've actually seen the central bank start to cut rates because one of the concerns is around unemployment rising too fast and too high," she said.

"That difference between Australia and some other OECD countries might reflect the fact that the RBA has been willing to tolerate a slower return of inflation to target with the benefit that unemployment doesn't rise as much.

"So even though we may not have seen the real wage growth that some other countries have, more people are still in employment here and still able to find a job, which is a key reason why we haven't seen the economy go into recession."

Families and neighbours who are shopping through informal co-ops as part of their weekly grocery run are saving hundreds of dollars by avoiding the big supermarkets.

But there are growing calls for the business model to be expanded as a way to apply major competitive pressure to the supermarket sector.

My colleague Sam Yang bravely got amongst the action at 5:30am on a Saturday to bring you the story, which you can see in full tonight during ABC News at 7pm, and on The Business at 8:45pm AEST.

But if you're hungry to know more now, Sam has come to table with an afternoon snack before he serves up the main course in time for dinner tonight:

Anyone throwing bricks at the RBA right now should be thankful they don't live on the other side of the Ditch.

That trailblazer of central banking, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, hasn't merely maintained interest rates at a whopping 5.5 per cent, it's kept its reputation intact for being the hairy man of monetary policy.

After tipping the economy into recession twice in a little over a year – only interrupted by growth at 0.2 per cent in the most recent quarter – the Wellington based outfit foresees a further slowdown in the near future.

In the post meeting statement, it confidently predicted headline inflation ought to be done and dusted and down in the target range within a couple of months,

For most central bankers, that would be rationale enough to start easing pressure on the brakes. But not in New Zealand, which was the first developed nation bank to start raising rates this time around.

That's despite a softening labour market, rising insolvencies, a lift in non-performing loans, sluggish credit growth and an uncertain outlook in China.

What are the chances of an overshoot?

Earlier today Dan was sharing the latest findings from the OECD's employment outlook, which found that the pay packets of Australians were almost 5% lower than they were before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The drop in wages is among the largest of all OECD member countries — and ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch said inflation had been a major contributing factor into real wages falling.

"The wages that most people see we call them nominal wages, so it's the dollar amount you're getting," she told ABC News Channel.

"With real wages, we're stripping out the impact of inflation, so a big reason that real wages have fallen almost 5% in Australia since the start of pandemic is because we had that period there where inflation was very high, running ahead of wage growth.

"So even if you were getting a pay rise, you probably weren't able to buy that much more because prices were going up more than your wages were."

It's for that reason, she explained, that people felt like they're going backwards, even if they had received a pay rise.

"That's certainly the case for a lot of people, particularly if you're still in the same job that you were pre-pandemic," she said.

"Whereas a lot of workers have been able to actually boost their wages and actually see their real wages rise because they have received promotions or because they have changed jobs as well.

"Changing jobs to take on a higher paying job with another employer has been a big reason why household incomes have actually been more supported than they would have been with that high inflation."

Earlier I mentioned that ACMA found Telstra had breached its licence carrier conditions by publishing the details of more than 140,000 customers with unlisted numbers over a 10-year period.

The telecommunications watchdog has issued a directive to Telstra over the incident, which includes a range of measures for remediation to affected customers.

You can read the full story below:

Hello there. Emilia here. I've been covering the collapse of Booktopia and the ripple effect it is having in Australia.

It's understood there are about 150,000 orders now in limbo, with Booktopia's administrators telling these unfortunate book lovers not to expect a refund. (Or on gift cards either.)

People owed these books are now unsecured creditors. And they're all invited to the first meeting of creditors next Monday. I hope they have a big bandwidth for that Teams meeting …

I'm looking to interview people owed books in coming days or on Monday after the meeting. Please send me an email on [email protected] if you're keen.

Regards, a fellow book lover.

The ASX 200 is trading lower as we enter the afternoon session. It's currently down 0.3% to 7,805 points as of 1:15pm AEST.

(For live figures, head to the market snapshot post at the top of the blog.)

Only one sector is in positive territory today, and that's technology — it's up 0.2%, while industrials is flat.

The rest are in negative territory, led by education (-4.7%), utilities (-1%) and basic materials (-0.8%).

As for the top movers, JB Hi-Fi has picked up some of the biggest gains today, despite no news or announcements.

Telstra is also trading higher, despite the telecommunications regulator finding that the telco disclosed the details of more than 140,000 silent number customers over a decade.

Here's the top movers so far:

• JB Hi-Fi +2.8%
• Judo Capital Holdings +2.7%
• Star Entertainment Group +2.6%
• Ingenia Communities +2.5%
• Telstra +2.4%

And the bottom movers so far:

• Insignia Financial -7.4%
• IDP Education -4.7%
• Orora -4.1%
• Alumina -3.6%
• Strike Energy -3.3%

Even with a touch more than 14,000 dwellings approved in May — a rise of 5.5% — building approvals overall are still pretty low when you look at the fluctuations over time.

This graph goes back to May 2009, which is 15 years ago (if you can believe it), but the data released today appears to show some green shoots.

Here's a closer look at the split between different private sector dwelling types that have been approved over the last 15 years.

You'll see private sector housing approvals are generally pretty steady, while there's been more fluctuation in "private sector dwellings excluding houses", which is ABS speak for semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses and apartments.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has kept interest rates on hold at 5.5%, as widely expected by economists.

In a post-meeting statement, the RBNZ said its monetary policy committee expected headline inflation would reach its 1-3% target range in the second half of the year, noting that high interest rates had "significantly reduced consumer price inflation".

While the central bank noted that "current and expected" government spending would keep overall spending in the economy relatively restrained, it said the impact of pending tax cuts on private spending in the economy was "less certain".

"The decline in inflation reflects receding domestic pricing pressures, as well as lower inflation for goods and services imported into New Zealand," the statement said.

"Labour market pressures have eased, reflecting cautious hiring decisions by firms and an increased supply of labour.

"The level of economic activity, including business and consumer investment spending and investment intentions, is consistent with the restrictive monetary stance.

"Some domestically generated price pressures remain strong. But there are signs inflation persistence will ease in line with the fall in capacity pressures and business pricing intentions."

The RBNZ monetary policy committee added that rates would need to remain "restrictive".

"The extent of this restraint will be tempered over time consistent with the expected decline in inflation pressures," it said.

As Dan foreshadowed earlier, the latest building approvals data  from the ABS has just dropped — and the total number of dwellings being approved in May rose by 5.5%.

That took the total number of approved dwellings to 14,175.

(Compared to April, the total number of dwellings approved fell by 0.3% to 13,078.)

Looking at private sector:

• Approvals for houses: +2.1% to 9,163
• Approvals for dwellings (excluding houses): +16.3% to 4,858

Meanwhile the value of total residential building rose by 2.3%, to $7.64 billion.

In fact, approvals for total dwellings rose in all states — here's them in order:

• Western Australia +19.6%
• Victoria: +8.9%
• Queensland: +6.3%
• South Australia: +4.1%
• Tasmania: +3.8%
• New South Wales: +2.9%

WA, Queensland and NSW also saw approvals for private houses increase in May — but approvals went backwards in Victoria and South Australia, falling by 3.4% and 1.9% respectively.

In about 40 minutes' time we'll hear what the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has decided to do with interest rates after holding its meeting.

Currently, the RBNZ has kept the cash rate on hold at 5.5% since May last year — and according to economists polled by Reuters, they're expecting that pause to continue, with 98.5% of those surveyed forecasting no change.

Inflation in NZ is currently sitting at 4% annually, according to the March quarterly consumer price index data.

The RBNZ's goal is to keep inflation within the 1-3% range over the medium term.

The Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC) is a banking industry-funded and controlled body that oversees compliance with the industry-created Code of Practice.

The industry insists the code has the "weight of law" because it is approved by a regulator (ASIC) inserted into contracts and then watched over by the BCCC.

There's not many people that examine this facet of regulation because, as you can tell from the many caveats above, it's hard to take too seriously.

It's not that the BCCC aren't trying hard or is not staffed by competent serious people doing their best for banking customers.

It's just that the body has to beg for powers from the industry peak body run by the members it's meant to be watching over - and has been knocked back when asking for more power.

So fascinating to see that twice in less than a month the BCCC has used the most substantial sanction it has.... actually naming the bank that did the wrong thing.

ANZ was sanctioned for not stopping or refunding fees for deceased estates, as well as not responding to representatives of deceased estates within the required timeframe.

Despite first identifying the issues in early 2022, ANZ took over a year to implement solutions and then nearly two years to start paying customers back, something it only expects to finish this month.

(This happened last week when I was on leave).

Chair of the BCCC, Ian Govey AM, noted the seriousness of the breaches.

“The decision to name ANZ for its non-compliance reflects the seriousness of its Code breaches... Naming a bank is a sanction that we reserve for the most serious and systemic breaches.

“The significance of the deficiencies in ANZ’s compliance frameworks was deeply concerning. Its non-compliance warranted such a sanction".

All sounds pretty tough.

The grim hilarity of this situation is exposed when you follow the link.

ANOTHER bank has done exactly the same things as ANZ. Who are they? You'll never know.

Welcome to self-regulation.

Ahead of the release of new building approvals data at 11:30am AEST, let's have a look at the last measure, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the number of dwellings approved rose +5.5%, after rising +1.9% in April.

Approvals for total dwellings rose in all states, in seasonally adjusted terms:

• Western Australia (+19.6%)
• Victoria (+8.9%)
• Queensland (+6.3%)
• South Australia (+4.1%)
• Tasmania (+3.8%) 
• New South Wales (+2.9%) 

Our flagship sharemarket index, the ASX 200, has opened the trading day down -0.38% to 7,799.80 points.

Tech company Dyson, known best for its innovative vacuums, is laying off one-third of its UK workforce.

The move, reported by the BBC, comes after long-running criticism of the UK economy and government policies from its founder Sir James Dyson.

The business moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2019, leaving behind 3,500 UK employees.

Dyson spends a huge amount on research and development. Like Apple, it spent immensely in an unsuccessful attempt to enter the electric car market.

More detail here. 

As of the end of June 2022, Australia was blessed with 586,020 New Zealand-born people living here.

That's +2.9% more than the amount (569,630) from a decade earlier.

All of which to say is that if you're a Kiwi wondering about what's going to happen to the interest rates on your "at home" mortgage … the RBNZ decision will be made at midday today (for Australia's eastern states) and we'll have it here.

A tide of dirty money from around the world has flooded into Australia's real estate market due to our lax rules to prevent money laundering.

You're probably thinking: "Hold on? We're always banging on about money laundering in casinos!" Yes. And banks, where the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac have been hit with mega-fines ($700b and $1.3b respectively) for failing to do what they should have to prevent criminals using their networks to shift ill-gotten gains.

But real estate has been the gaping hole. We've been in grim company (governance wise) by not passing so-called "Tranche II" laws that would force lawyers and real estate to report suspicious transactions.

The real estate industry has been very much against the reforms, despite the fact someone can currently walk into an auction and buy a house with a suitcase full of cash and that is apparently just fine.

For more sensible analysis, here's Ian Verrender.