- For a tenth straight month, the Rural Mainstreet Index remained below growth neutral.
- Farmland prices remained below growth neutral for the 31st straight month.
- Due to the weak agriculture economy, 73.5 percent of bankers increased collateral requirements, half boosted interest rates, and 35.3 percent rejected a higher percentage of farm loans.
- Rural Mainstreet businesses boosted hiring for the month.
Overall: The index, which ranges between 0 and 100, rose to 43.9 from May’s 40.9. While remaining very fragile, the Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) has increased four of the last five months.
“This is the 10th straight month the overall index has remained below growth neutral. Even though agriculture and energy commodity prices have increased recently, they remain well below last year’s prices and from their peak levels in 2011. Over the past 12 months, farm prices are down by 9.5 percent, grain prices are off by 4 percent, and livestock are down by 15 percent,” said Ernie Goss, Jack A. MacAllister Chair in Regional Economics at Creighton University's Heider College of Business.
Due to reductions in farm income and agriculture commodity prices over the past three years, bankers have altered their farm lending practices. Almost three of four, or 73.5 percent increased collateral requirements, half boosted interest rates, more than one-third, or 35.3 percent rejected a higher percentage of farm loans. Approximately, 17.6 percent of the bankers reported that their banks reduced the average size of farm loans.