By Paul McBeth
Friday 27th February 2009 |
Text too small? |
Bollard told the government's jobs summit that New Zealand's banks have a key role in helping lift the global economy out of its slump, and need to continue lending to help stimulate the economy. The nation's banking sector, dominated by the four biggest Australian banks, enjoy the strongest credit ratings of any lenders worldwide.
"Our banking system is well-capitalised, plain vanilla, and mortgage lending is generally on good credit quality," Bollard said in notes of his power point presentation. Banks "have profited from good times in this economy, and we expect them to be there for the tough times too."
The economic slump was significantly worse than the troughs in the 1990s and 2000s, but the world was "nowhere near Depression-level economic condition," Bollard told the audience. The major loss in New Zealand's wealth had come from falling equity and house prices, he said.
Prime Minister John Key called the summit to investigate ways to minimise the impact of rising unemployment, which may exceed 7% this year. Politicians are meeting with leaders of business and industry to discuss the measures in an open forum.
No comments yet
EBOS announces appointment of new Chief Financial Officer
AM Best affirms Tower Limited's A- (Excellent) FSR
MCK enters into conditional agreement for Whangarei land
April 26th Morning Report
SPG - Change to Executive Team
BGI - Forgiveness of $200,000 of secured indebtedness
General Capital Subsidiary General Finance Market Update
AFT,Massey Ventures,Gilles McIndoe to develop scar treatmen
April 24th Morning Report
Cheers to many fewer grape harvest spills