Developing risks in agriculture Despite prospects of sustained farm income growth, U.S. producers must remain alert as they face challenges related to their very success and tied to recent developments in financial markets. Surging commodity prices and low interest rates have translated into increasing farmland values, which have eclipsed their 1980s peaks.
The annual growth rate of loans to households (adjusted for loan sales and securitisation) stood at 0.2% in January 2014, broadly unchanged since the beginning of 2013. Since the summer of 2012 substantial progress has been made in improving the funding situation of banks.