Banks still lending strongly to farming sector

Banks and other financial institutions continued to lend strongly to the agriculture sector in May, with borrowing by the sector up 17 per cent from May 2008, figures from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand show.

There was almost an extra $500 million lent to agriculture in May from April, which took the total owed by this sector to banks and other financial institutions to over $45.5 billion.

In contrast, businesses paid back more than they borrowed in May, the fifth consecutive month for which this was the case.

Credit lent to the business sector was $78.1 billion by the end of the month, down from $78.5 billion at the end of April. Year on year business credit growth for May was 5.1 per cent, having fallen from 12.4 per cent in December.

- INTEREST.CO.NZ