New governor leaves OCR alone

Graeme Wheeler's first OCR statement as governor of the Reserve Bank.

Thursday, October 25th 2012, 9:06AM 2 Comments

The Reserve Bank today left the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 2.50%.

Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said: “the global economy remains fragile, with further recovery heavily dependent on policy implementation. That said, market sentiment has improved from earlier in the year, suggesting the risks to the global outlook are more balanced.

“Domestically, GDP continues to expand at a modest pace. Housing market activity is increasing as expected, and repairs and reconstruction in Canterbury are boosting the construction sector. Offsetting this, fiscal consolidation is constraining demand growth, and the high New Zealand dollar is undermining export earnings and encouraging substitution toward imported goods and services.

“While annual CPI inflation has fallen to 0.8 percent, the Bank continues to expect inflation to head back towards the middle of the target range. We will continue to monitor inflation indicators, such as pricing intention and inflation expectation data, closely over coming months.

For now it remains appropriate for the OCR to be held at 2.50%.”

« New RBNZ governor not likely to wheel out rate cut

Hint of optimism in OCR announcement »

Special Offers

Comments from our readers

On 25 October 2012 at 10:01 am Darcy Ungaro said:

In other words, "I just got the job, so don't really want to stick my neck out on the line just yet"!

On 25 October 2012 at 6:27 pm brent sheather said:

or...i dont want to scare everyone by dropping the rate to zero just yet

Sign In to add your comment

New governor leaves OCR alone

Graeme Wheeler's first OCR statement as governor of the Reserve Bank.

Thursday, October 25th 2012, 9:06AM 2 Comments

Comments from our readers

www.GoodReturns.co.nz