Farm group wants rural sector to share in rate cut
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The New South Wales Farmers Association says it hopes the latest interest rate cut will be passed on to farmers.
Yesterday, the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by one percentage point, to 4.25 per cent.
Farmers' association president Jock Laurie says it is the fourth interest rate cut in three months, but he says farmers have not been seeing reductions to their loans.
"It's very important that agriculture gets its fair share of the relief from interest rates ... it's absolutely important that agriculture shares in that," he said.
Meanwhile, the latest Rabobank rural confidence survey is out.
The latest survey from the specialists in food and agribusiness banking shows rural confidence has eased slightly but remains relatively stable.
Rabobank says confidence fell for a third successive quarter, but sentiment in NSW is the highest in the country.
It says while confidence is steady, it varies from region to region across the state. Thirty-one per cent of primary producers are expecting an improvement in the agricultural economy over the next year - down 3 per cent on the previous quarter.
Rabobank also says that most of the state's agricultural producers thought the global credit crisis had not affected them yet.
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