Rural lender PGG Wrightson Finance told interest.co.nz it would cut most of its lending rates by 1.35% to 1.4% on February 1, following the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's 150 basis point cut in the Official Cash Rate to 3.5% on Thursday. "It is great to be able to pass on rate relief to farmers during a time when many of their incomes are under pressure from lower world commodity prices," Head of PGG Wrightson Finance Mark Darrow said in a statement to the NZX. Darrow declined to tell interest.co.nz how much PGG Wrightson Finance had cut rates since July, but said that in general terms what they were making sure of was that if there were any interest rate movements, and if PGG Wrightson Finance gained from these, then cuts would be passed on. "The OCR has decreased 4.75% since July 2008, to the lowest level since it was introduced on 17 March 1999. Over the same six months period PGG Wrightson Finance has moved prime lending rates by a commensurate amount," Darrow said in the NZX statement. Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard on Thursday urged lenders to pass cuts in the OCR on to interest rates.
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