New Zealand’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged for the first time in almost two years amid signs that the weaker economy is slowing inflation.
The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee held the Official Cash Rate at 5.5% Wednesday in Wellington, as predicted by all 19 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The last time policymakers left interest rates unchanged was in August 2021.
“Interest rates are constraining spending and inflation pressure as anticipated and required,” the RBNZ said in a statement. “The Committee is confident that with interest rates remaining at a restrictive level for some time, consumer price inflation will return to within its target range.”
New Zealand’s 525 basis points of tightening, the most aggressive since the OCR was introduced in 1999, has stalled economic growth while surging immigration is taking the pressure off wage inflation. The slump in consumer spending may not reverse anytime soon because many fixed-term mortgages still haven’t rolled onto significantly higher interest rates.
The New Zealand dollar eased after the announcement. It bought 62.06 cents at 2:05 p.m. in Wellington, down from 62.23 cents beforehand.
The RBNZ’s decision was an interim review rather than a quarterly Monetary Policy Statement, so the bank didn’t issue new forecasts and there is no press conference with Governor Adrian Orr.
In its most recent projections in May, the RBNZ forecast the benchmark rate would stay at 5.5% until the third quarter of 2024.
