Kiwibank the latest to raise some key term deposit rate rates, following rivals, but it's Rabobank with most of the market-leading positions for savers

It appears there's more upward pressure in the term deposit (TD) marketplace, even if it isn't showing yet for home loans.

Kiwibank has raised two key TD rates; the popular nine-month rate is up 35 basis points (bps) to 2.00% pa, and its one year rate is up 10 bps to 2.30% pa.

Kiwibank follows Westpac, which followed BNZ, which raised rates for a wider series of terms, the top one being for one year where Westpac now offers 2.40%.

And that was followed in turn by Rabobank, which topped them all with 20 bps increases on top of what were already attractive offers, making the rural lender the clear market leader in the term deposit market. Rabobank now offers 1.85% for six months, 2.05% for nine months, and 2.45% for 12 months. Further out, its 3.35% for three years is also a clear market leader.

Wholesale interest rate markets are barely open Tuesday for the new week, and expectations are that these background rates will rise on the back of the signals from the US non-farm payrolls employment report. The imminent US Consumer Price Index data for January will be influential in market positioning when it is released Friday (NZ time).

Even though we are in a period of 'financial repression' (that is, savings returns are less than inflation), for term deposit savers it will always be better to get a higher rate than not, to minimise the pressure on their nest-egg. Savers will hope the Reserve Bank can win its battle with inflation because inflation is a thief of savings. Some short term pain will be the cost as almost all savers are aware. But it will be much worse if the Reserve Bank doesn't succeed in taming inflation.

An easy way to work out how much extra you can earn by switching is to use our full function deposit calculator. We have included it at the foot of this article. That will not only give you an after-tax result, you can tweak it for the added benefits of Term PIEs as well. It is better you have that extra interest than the bank.

The latest headline rate offers are in this table.

for a $25,000 deposit	Rating	3/4 mths	5 / 6 / 7 mths	8 - 11 mths	1 yr	18mth	2 yrs	3 yrs
Main banks
ANZ	AA-	1.10	1.50	1.70	2.20	2.20	2.50	3.00
	AA-	0.95	1.30	1.55	2.00	2.10	2.50	3.00
	AA-	1.00	1.50	1.80	2.30	2.35	2.50	2.75
Kiwibank	A	1.20	1.60	2.00 +0.35	2.30 +0.10		2.50	2.75
	AA-	1.00	1.60 +0.10	1.80 +0.15	2.40 +0.20	2.40 +0.20	2.50	3.00 +0.20
Other banks
Co-operative Bank	BBB	0.70	1.50	1.65	2.20	2.20	2.50	2.80
	BBB	1.25	1.75	1.65	2.00	2.10	2.50	2.75
HSBC	AA-	0.85	1.35	1.50	1.85		2.25	2.60
ICBC	A	1.35	1.75	1.85	2.30	2.35	2.75	3.10
	A	1.00 +0.10	1.85 +0.10	2.05 +0.20	2.45 +0.20	2.55 +0.20	2.90 +0.20	3.35 +0.20
	BBB	1.00	1.65	1.85	2.25	2.25	2.55	3.00
	A-	0.95	1.50	2.00	2.20	2.10	2.50	3.00