TREASURY BILLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 252, 25 October 1933, Page 9

TREASURY BILLS.

LOWER INTEREST RATE. MR." COATES' EXPECTATIONS. IBy Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. A reduction in t.be ordinary rate of interest and a lowering of the rate on Treasury bills are two beneficial results to be expected from the operation of the reserve bank, according to a statement by Mr. Coates,' in the House last night. "It is no stretch of the imagination," he said, "to say that the bank, by the utilisation of credit resources, may have the effect of lowering the rate of interest, and the benefit of the Government's finances will be real. At present we are paying 5 per cent for money borrowed on Treasury bills from the commercial banks, which, by comparison, is the highest rate in the British Empire. In Canada the rate is from 3| per cent to 3 7/8 per cent, in Australia 2J per cent, in India 1 per cent, and South Africa 1J per cent." He added that it was possible the Government was paying more for Treasury bills than it needed to. It was for the trading banks to say .whether they could do it for less; they sftid they could not.