Interest Rate Volatility Top Concern for Ag Lenders Into 2023
Pacific Northwest Ag Network
By: Glenn Vaagen
According to the 2022 Ag Lender Survey, produced by the American Bankers Association and Farmer Mac, interest rate volatility is the top concern heading into 2023. Jackson Takach, chief economist with Farmer Mac, said when it comes to the overall strength of the farm economy, most respondents said the Ag economy is showing improvements.
“Higher commodity prices doesn’t hurt. You’ve also got you know rising land values, and some inflationary pressures coming into the cost side. That’s really creating some concern so an improvement in the farm economy overall profitability improving largely across different types of farming businesses and entities. But a little bit of concern on the sort of horizon about how rising prices and inflation is going to bite into those profits next year.”
Nearly half of respondents, 49% ranked interest rate volatility among their top two concerns, up 35.5% points from last year. Takach said they conduct this Ag lender survey every August, by asking thousands of rural bankers nationwide, what’s taking place on the local level.
“We try to get a lot of targeted intelligence about the farm economy, lending conditions, and then it could be policies that are changing and what are going to impact those lenders. Because it’s a critical component of you know really capitalizing rural America is going to be that interaction between the farmers, ranchers and the lenders, and we want to capture everything that’s happening there we that Ag lender survey to do it.”
Click Here to check out the entire 2022 Ag Lender survey for yourself.
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