About the six-month term deposit rate
This is the Reserve Bank’s weighted-average six-month term-deposit rate, published in retail table B3 as series INR.MBI05.T07. It is a survey of what registered banks are paying, not a single advertised card from one brand, and not a wholesale yield. The latest month on this page is 3.45% for 31 Jul 2026.
A term deposit is a retail savings product: you lock money with a bank for a stated term and receive a fixed rate if you leave it there. Six months is short enough that the rate still tracks the policy cycle, and long enough that it is not just an at-call savings account. When the OCR is falling, banks often cut deposit cards before they cut the last of their advertised mortgage specials. When the OCR is rising, deposit rates usually follow up, though the pass-through is rarely complete and is almost never same-day.
The B3 series begins on 31 Mar 1965. That makes it one of the longer official retail-deposit records in New Zealand. It is a weighted average, so larger books influence the number more than a small regional card. It is also a stock-of-new-business style advertised rate rather than the average rate being paid on every deposit already sitting on a bank’s balance sheet. Existing customers who lodged money a year ago are not rewritten into this month’s observation.
People look this rate up when they want an official answer to “what are six-month deposits paying, in general?” rather than a comparison-site list that changes by the afternoon. It is also a useful cross-check on the mortgage series. A wide gap between the floating new-customer mortgage rate and this deposit rate is the retail expression of a bank’s net interest margin; it is not a recommendation to do anything with that gap, only a way to see it in official data.
How to read the chart: each point is a month. Sharp climbs cluster around tightening cycles; long declines cluster around easing cycles and around periods when banks already had more deposits than they wanted to add. The mean of 561 months is 6.31%. The median is 5.44%. The lowest observation is 0.82% on 31 Jan 2021; the highest is 18.00% on 31 Jul 1987. Use Max to see the 1970s and 1980s, when retail deposit rates were in a different world. Use 5Y if you only care about the latest cycle.
A published average is not an offer. Term-deposit cards differ by amount, by whether the product is a PIE, and by how badly a given bank wants funding that week. Break fees apply if you withdraw early. This page will not tell you which institution is paying the most tomorrow morning. It will tell you what the official survey says the six-month rate was at the last release.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the rate my bank is paying me?
Only if your bank’s six-month card happens to match the weighted average. Check the institution that holds the money.
Why is it monthly?
Because that is how the Reserve Bank publishes B3. There is no official daily national average for this series.
Does it include PIE deposits?
B3 describes a weighted six-month term-deposit rate from the retail survey. For a finer product split, the Reserve Bank also publishes dedicated term-deposit tables such as B26.
Why would this rate not move when the OCR moves?
Banks price deposits against their own funding need and against competitors, not as an automatic spread to the OCR. Pass-through can be partial or delayed.
Source: RBNZ Retail interest rates (B3), series INR.MBI05.T07. Local files: data/raw/hb3.xlsx. Values are republished without alteration.