90 at 9 January 14, 2008

Welcome to interest.co.nz's morning briefing of what's news here and around the world. Everything you need to start the day in 90 seconds at 9'oclock.... Starting now
Or perhaps it should be the daily credit crunch report... because over the weekend there's more news of another major bank asking for cash to bolster its balance sheet.
Citigroup is reported to be close to finding another US$10-15 billion of fresh capital from a collection of investors ranging from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to the China development bank.
This is the second such cash injection in a month comes just days before Citigroup is expected to announce another $15 billion in writeoffs of sub-prime loans.
In more credit crunch news, Bank of America will buy struggling US mortgage lender Countrywide Financial for $4 billion. Bank of America was already exposed, having bought a 16% last year.
This is good news for New Zealand's major banks, who collectively have been reported to have invested $1 billion in helping to bailout Countrywide last year.
Also at home...House prices fell in each of the last four months of 2007, Quoteable Value has reported.
The average sale price in December fell to $388,253 from $393,198 and the annual growth rate slowed to 10% from 11.4% in November.
The state-owed QV said the Spring market had definitely not provided the surge of previous years and the trend of falling prices would continue into 2008.
That was 90 seconds at 9 o'clock. I'm Bernard Hickey for interest.co.nz

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