Malaysia's economy expanded 6% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026, according to final data released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia on Friday.
The headline reading came in above the consensus market forecast of 5.8% tracked by Investing.com, compared with the 5.4% year-over-year growth recorded in the first quarter.
On a seasonally adjusted quarter-over-quarter basis, the economy grew 2.5%, following a stalled performance in the previous three-month period.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) on Friday left loan-to-value ratio (LVR) settings unchanged in its annual review of macroprudential policy, noting that housing risks are currently contained.The current settings, which have been in place since December 2025, allow up to 25% of new lending to have an LVR above 80% for owner occupiers, and up to 10% of new lending to have an LVR above 70% for investors."Nationally, house prices have remained broadly flat in recent years, while mortgage lending growth has been modest and the share of higher-risk lending remains manageable," said Angus McGregor, the central bank's assistant governor of financial stability.He added that debt-to-income restrictions, which complement LVR settings as a guardrail against the accumulation of high-risk lending, also remain in place.
The number of total loan commitments for dwellings in Australia fell 5.4% to 134,225 in the June Quarter, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.New owner-occupier home loans declined 3.3% to 81,626, with their total value falling 1.9% to AU$60.53 billion, while first home buyer loans decreased 2.9% to 29,319, and rose 0.2% in value to AU$18.38 billion."Lending fell across all borrower types this quarter and returned to similar levels to this time last year," said Mish Tan, the bureau's head of finance statistics.Meanwhile, lending to investors fell 8.6% to 52,599. The total value of investment loans approved decreased over 10% to AU$37.12 billion.Compared with the year-earlier period, total loan approvals rose 0.1% in the June quarter. New home loans were flat, while investor loans increased 2.8%.
Costs for supermarkets in New Zealand from grocery suppliers increased 1.9% in July from a year earlier, Infometrics said in a Friday report."July's result was the slowest annual increase since February 2025, driven by a number of cost decreases as some fuel adjustment factors reversed out," according to Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen.At the same time, "product cost increases haven't been as intense as first feared when conflict in the Middle East sent various input costs soaring," Olsen said."Although costs for some items have eased back slightly, increases continue across some household staples including meats, some produce, and recently some non-food grocery items," Olsen added.Supplier costs rose across all departments in July compared with a year earlier, with butchery cost increases led by beef, lamb, and pork, while higher produce costs were led by onions, cucumbers, and certain fruits.Month on month, just over 3,600 products increased in cost from June to July, which Infometrics said is "a more usual number of monthly cost increases after the surge in June."