NFU pleads for lower interest rates
20 May 1999
NFU pleads for lower interest rates
THE National Farmers Union plans to plead with the Bank of England to help the agricultural industry by reducing interest rates.
Ben Gill, NFU president, is expected to emphasise the punitive effects of the strong Pound when he meets Bank of England governor Eddie George next week.
The NFU believes that Sterling is at an artificially high level because British interest rates are double the rate of European interest rates.
Mr Gills initiative comes as a recently published report finds agriculture in a worse condition than thought.
The crisis has now spread beyond the agricultural sector, leading to job losses in allied industries, and was also threatening the viability of pubs and village shops.
The study reports that farm incomes are “in free-fall and the suffering in agriculture is being translated into suffering across the rural economy”.
Farm incomes have fallen by 75% in the past two years and continue to slide as food prices paid to farmers have also continued to plummet in the past year.
Knock-on effects have hit road hauliers, seed suppliers, fertiliser manufacturers, land valuers and livestock auctioneers.
The report discloses that 10 livestock markets have had to close and 1800 jobs have been lost in the British Poultry Meat Federation.