The Reserve Bank of New Zealand today left the Official Cash Rate
(OCR) unchanged at 2.5 percent. Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler
said: “The downside risks around global growth have receded in recent
months, and financial market sentiment has improved. “Domestically, the
economic recovery is uneven. While demand and output are expanding, the
labour market remains weak. Economic growth and inflation are being
shaped by a range of forces. The Canterbury rebuild is gaining momentum
and residential investment and business and consumer confidence are
increasing. House price inflation is increasing and the Bank does not
want to see financial stability or inflation risks accentuated by
housing demand getting too far ahead of supply.
“The
overvalued New Zealand dollar is undermining profitability in export and
import competing industries, and worsening drought conditions are
creating difficulty in much of the country. Ongoing fiscal consolidation
will also act to slow overall demand. “We project the economy to grow
at an annual rate of between 2 and 3 percent over the forecast period.
Inflation is expected to rise gradually towards the 2 percent midpoint
of the target range. “There are both upside and downside risks to this
outlook. At this point we expect to keep the OCR unchanged through the
end of the year.”
Source by Commodity Insights
No comments:
Post a Comment