Westpac Urges Farmers to Prepare Now for El Niño Drought
Westpac NZ is calling on farmers and growers to start preparing now for the possibility of a dry summer, as likely El Niño conditions raise the risk of drought across parts of the country.
First out of the blocks was ANZ, shedding crocodile tears about how “tough things” had been in the past year and how it had only managed to make a profit of $1.825 billion for the year to September 30 on its NZ business -- an 8% drop on 2018.
The next big Aussie bank to publish its result was Westpac, with its NZ arm reporting a 3% lift in net profit to $964m, from $936m last year.
But this didn’t stop its $2.5m-a-year NZ boss decrying how business conditions had “deteriorated” in the second half of the reporting period, based largely on uncertainty about the outlook for next year.
Your canine crusader would be interested to know just how ANZ and Westpac are currently treating their rural/farming clients and how ‘tough’ they are making it for them.
