‍New Zealand‍

We’ve added a monthly dataset from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand breaking down different segments of new residential mortgage lending. There are five new time series visualised in the chart below. 

The “total lending” series tracks the value of monthly committed residential mortgage loans. “Property purchases,” the biggest sub-category, tracks loans that are taken out to purchase or build a property. This includes investors, first-home buyers and owner-occupiers who purchase a second property. 

The “top ups” series tracks increases to existing residential mortgage loans, where the underlying security has not changed but may be revalued. Finally, the “changes in loan provider” series tracks residential mortgage loans taken out to refinance an existing mortgage from another lender, regardless of whether the value of the loan has changed during the transfer. 

There is also an “other” series for residential mortgage commitments that don’t fall into the previously mentioned categories. Examples include the use of an unencumbered property as security for a new loan or instances where mortgage interest is capitalised.

In the chart below, we can see that total new lending, as of November 2023, stood at NZD 6.5 billion; new residential mortgages are posting a modest but steady recovery from their low of NZD 2.78 billion the previous January. That low, incidentally, was only just above the depressed Covid-19 print of April 2020.

Slovenia

We’ve added data breaking down Slovenia’s trade relationship with Russia. On an annual EUR export and import basis, there are 11 new time series, including the headline total and 10 sub-categories by industry.

In the chart below, we visualise this data through a dashboard. The four left-hand columns break down Slovenian exports; the four right-hand columns show imports from Russia. The two middle columns use bubbles to compare 2023 data to figures a year earlier.

As of the end of 2023, we can see how sanctions and the disruptions of war have caused this trade relationship to wither, both in absolute and percentage terms and for both imports and exports. “Mineral fuels,” i.e. Russian energy exports to Slovenia, are down 93 percent by value. Slovenia’s most important exports to Russia are chemicals and machinery, and both have shrunk by about a quarter.  

Slovenia

We’ve also added similar data breaking down Slovenia’s trade relationship with Ukraine, and have visualised it in the same dashboard style.

While this trade relationship has also contracted overall as the war with Russia damages Ukraine’s economy, there are more green cells showing a few categories where exports and imports have increased.