Reserve Bank holds Official Cash Rate at 3.25%
RNZ
The Reserve Bank has held the official cash rate at 3.25 percent.
Ahead of the announcement on Wednesday, the central bank was widely tipped to be hitting the pause button, after nearly a year of uninterrupted rate cuts.
It says it wants more clarity on what's happening with local inflation, the economy, and US trade policies.
Most economists believed the RBNZ would take a breather to wait for more information and data.
The word "uncertainty" was mentioned 164 times at the central bank's last meeting, amid trade tensions and war in the Middle East.
However, Kiwibank's chief economist Jarrod Kerr told
Morning Report
the economy was still in a very tough position and
the Reserve Bank should probably have considered cutting the OCR this week
.
He said the economy needed more support so it could run rather than crawl out of the recession. Households were still struggling with the cost of living and businesses were facing headwinds.
More to come...
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