RURAL FINANCE

Regular Surveys

Surveys of the various lending rate packages available to NZ farmers have been carried out at approximately 6 week intervals from 1990 to 2001. These were published in The New Zealand Farmer magazine and are recognised as the leading authority on rural finance rates. Currently a new publication is being sought to continue this work

The approach taken has been to get all lending organizations (8-12 in number) to quote on a specific farmer profile complete with risk assessment. Finance is required for a $200,000 term loan, a $50,000 seasonal loan. All establishment costs, facility fees, cheque costs etc are taken into account at arriving at a final financial package cost for each lender.

Full details of each bank's lending costs are available along with a commentary on the results and the economic climate impacting onto farmer's finance.

Historical Trends

The average cost of term and seasonal finance has been recorded on a weekly basis since 1990, along with the 90 day bank bill rates and Consumers Price Index (CPI).