Business lending rates reach 33-year highs

RBNZ governor Adrian Orr has defended bank capital requirements, saying they are not dampening competition. (Image: Mark Mitchell)

Gregor Thompson

Wed, 05 Jun 2024

Business lending rates are higher now than at any time since 1991.The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) preferred measurement, the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) overdraft rate, formerly called the business base lending rate (BBLR), currently stands at 12.7%, which represents the base interest rate for new overdraft loans for non-farm SMEs.One medium-sized business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, told BusinessDesk his “overdraft rate is equivalent to 14% and [his] term loans are more or less 10% ... and then there...

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