新西兰英语 139 Drop in Official Cash Rate

Today the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Alan Bollard, lowered the official cash rate (OCR) to 2.5%. This is down 50 points from the 12th March. It is also a huge change from July last year when the OCR was at a high point of 8.25%. In July 2007, the OCR was at 8.25% and it stayed there for a year. Since July last year, however, the Governor of the Reserve Bank has been steadily¹ dropping the rate, hoping this would help the economy. He suggested it could drop again before the end of this year and would stay low until the end of 2010.
He said today that the world economy was in a much worse position than before, although New Zealand’s economy is not so bad. Still, we are affected² by the rest of the world because we are a trading country. Our banks also borrow money from overseas and have to pay a high rate to borrow. This is one reason that the banks are not dropping their mortgage³ rates by much.
New Zealanders are not investing money at the moment either. Unemployment is also rising so it will probably be some time before the economy improves.

1 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 mortgage   

n.抵押，抵押贷款；vt.抵押

参考例句：

• He's having a lot of trouble paying his mortgage every month.他付每月的抵押借款利息有很大的困难。
• The bank refused to accept any mortgage on land.银行拒绝接受任何土地抵押。