新西兰英语 496 The Official Cash Rate stays the same

 　　The Governor¹ of the Reserve Bank, Dr Bollard, kept the OCR at 2.5% today. Dr Bollard said he kept it at the same rate because of financial problems in Europe. Also the slowdown in the US is a concern. In addition, the US will need to borrow more money again very soon. At the moment, the New Zealand economy is not affected² too much by what is happening overseas. Dr Bollard seemed surprised that the New Zealand economy is still doing OK. If China and other Asian countries are affected by Europe and the US, this could make it harder for New Zealand to borrow money overseas.

　　The Kiwi dollar dropped from US 82c yesterday to 81.28 this evening. Dr Bollard believes the Kiwi dollar is too high. The high Kiwi dollar makes it difficult for New Zealand exporters to sell their goods overseas.

　　The OCR influences the cost of borrowing money for New Zealanders. Mortgage³ rates go up when the OCR goes up. It is possible the Reserve Bank will increase the OCR at the end of October. If this happens, the Kiwi dollar could drop.

　　Listen to March 10th 2011 to hear more about the OCR.

　　Vocabulary

　　“affect” means influence It is a verb; “effect” is usually a noun⁴ meaning result.

　　Grammar:

　　The high Kiwi dollar makes it difficult / harder (for X) to do something.

　　Think of some other sentences you could make using this structure: … makes it easy / easier / hard etc.

1 governor   

n.统治者，地方长官(如省长，州长，总督等)

参考例句：

• The governor was an expert at fencing with reporters.这位州长是搪塞新闻记者的能手。
• He was elected governor of the state of California.他当选为加州州长。

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。

4 noun   

n.名词

参考例句：

• What kind of noun is this?这是哪类名词？
• This word is a collective noun.这个词是个集体名词。