According to the statistics published by the central bank for the first time, the interest margins of the banks in New Zealand grew up in the month of August to its widest level in at least one year.

The net interest margins across all the lenders grew up to 2.11% from 2.9% in the month of July and reached to its highest level since the series was started in the month of September in last year.

These data were published in the website of Reserve Bank of New Zealand on yesterday. The margins of the banks are expanding from levels immediately before the global financial crisis and the competition for loans squeezed profits of the banks.

The net margin is calculated by dividing the net interest income by average interest bearing assets. The figures came from the monthly surveys of the banks which provided the correct amount of data. Margins in some of the banks were volatile because of the activity of wholesale markets and the net interest margin of a subset of eight retail banks rose up to 2.12% in that period.