新西兰英语 413 Official Cash Rate

　　The governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Bollard, reduced the official cash rate (OCR) by half a percent from 3% to 2.5% today. For background to the OCR, listen to June 10th 2010 and follow the links.
Most banks immediately dropped the floating mortgage¹ rates to under 6%. They dropped the fixed² mortgage rates last week.
The reason for the drop in the OCR is the Christchurch earthquake. The economy was not strong before the earthquake but now New Zealand faces more problems. There is the huge cost of rebuilding Christchurch which could be $15bn or more. In the meantime, so many Christchurch businesses are closed, workers have lost jobs and people are not interested in spending money on fashion or furniture. The kiwi dollar dropped after the earthquake to just under 74c to the US dollar. The increase in the price of food and fuel has not helped the economy either.
However, before the end of this year, the re-building of Christchurch will begin. There will be jobs for builders and other tradesmen. There will be a need for more building materials. Another hopeful sign is that New Zealand farmers are getting good prices for their food – especially milk and meat. Dr Bollard expects that the economy will start to improve from the middle of this year.
Pronunciation and vocabulary:
Note the pronunciation of “economy” with the stress on “con”. The adjective “economic” is stressed on the 3rd syllable³: “nom”. You can use it for phrases like “economic growth”. The subject studied at university is “Economics” which is pronounced the same as the adjective but it has an “s” at the end.
The adjective “economical” has the stress on the 3rd syllable also but the meaning is different. It means: doesn’t so cost much e.g. My small car is economical to run. The verb “economise / ize” has a related meaning, make cuts to your spending e.g. You need to economise if you have very little money.

1 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。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。