Business lending rates reach 33-year highs

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
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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