RBF hails Westpac’s rate cut

The Reserve Bank of Fiji has welcomed the decision by Westpac Banking Corporation to reduce its lending rates in response to RBF policy that lending rates be rolled back to the weighted average level at the end of last year.

Westpac yesterday announced it had decreased its interest rates on residential mortgages and other variables by 1.5 per cent and one per cent, respectively.
 
The new rates come into effect from June 22.
 
In a statement today, RBF governor Sada Reddy said not all banks had increased rates since the end of last year and acknowledged the “positive contributions commercial banks had made in keeping rates unchanged”.
     
However, he said the recent announcement of interest rate reductions “will go a long way in encouraging investments and assist in economic recovery”.
 
Reddy added foreign reserves continued to increase and were currently at around $650 million, with the banking system liquidity remaining buoyant, averaging around $130 million in recent weeks.