Responding to rises in longer term bond yields on wholesale markets, ANZ and National have increased their three, four and five year mortgage rates by as much as 35 basis points. Long term mortgage rates had stabilised after a sharp rise in mid-March, but wholesale markets have pushed rates higher in the last couple of weeks on fears globally of heavy government borrowing. The imminent budget here has focused thoughts locally, with many expecting Finance Minister Bill English to announce bond issues over the next 4 years of close to NZ$50 billion later on Thursday. Prime Minister John Key has said the primary focus of the budget due at 2.30pm today is to avoid a credit rating downgrade, given it would push up mortgage rates by 1.5%. Long term mortgage rates have bounced around 2% from their late February lows. ANZ and National increased their 3 year fixed rate to 6.85% from 6.75%. They lifted their 4 year rates to 7.4% from 7.15% and their 5 year rates to 7.85% from 7.5%. See all mortgage rates from all the banks in our rates table here.
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