Higher than expectations

The number of new dwelling consents approved in New Zealand rose a seasonally adjusted 14.7% compared with a revised 6.4% rise in February. The prior estimate for February was for a 5.7% rise.

  • Excluding apartments, flats and retirement village units the number of consents for new houses was up 0.1%
  • Building consents was 5.3% higher than the same month a year ago

The data can be volatile and the gains were fueled by multi family units predominantly.. well exclusively. That can be transitory and impact data dramatically. Nevertheless, the data is still the strongest since June 2016.

The NZDUSD is little changed. It scrapes above and below the 61.8% of the move up from the November low at 0.70306.