RBNZ OCR held steady at 1.75%, NZD little changed

RBNZ OCR held steady at 1.75%, NZD little changed

The RBNZ have maintained the Official Cash Rate (OCR) at 1.75%. This was widely expected. There is no Monetary Policy Statement issued at this meeting.

The key points in the RBNZ statement are:
Reserve Bank of NZ maintains the Official Cash Rate at 1.75%
Monetary Policy will remain accommodative
Uncertainties remain around the international outlook
Further depreciation of the NZD needed to achieve more balanced growth
Inflation to return midpoint of target band in the medium term
Trade Weighted Index (TWI) has fallen since Feb – this is encouraging
Major challenges remain with extensive global geo-political uncertainty
Global monetary policy is expected to remain stimulatory but less so going forward
Domestic growth outlook remains positive
Dairy prices have been volatile, uncertainty remains
House prices inflation has moderated, uncertain if it will last
Q4 GDP weaker than expected, likely to be temporary
Long-term inflation expectations remain around 2%
The NZD traded in a 25 point range in response to the RBNZ rate decision and press release. The NZD has ended up marginally higher in th4e wash up.

The next OCR decision and full Monetary Policy Statement will be held on 11th May 2017.

Current indicative levels are:

NZD-USD 0.7045 / 0.7070
NZD-AUD 0.9175 / 0.9200
NZD-EUR 0.6520 / 0.6545
NZD-GBP 0.5635 / 0.5660
NZD-JPY 78.30 / 78.55

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