The latest announcement made by the RBNZ is that the OCR will remain unchanged for the time being.
The RBNZ commented that "employment is around its maximum sustainable level, and inflation remains within our target range but below the 2% mid-point".
Global trade and political tensions are still lowering the demands for our goods and services, and business confidence remains at an all-time low. The previous reduction in OCR has decreased the interest rates for households and businesses and kept the New Zealand dollar exchange rate low. The RBNZ is hoping that this, combined with an increase in Government spending, will pick-up the domestic demand over the upcoming year.
As mentioned in our previous blog, we are still expecting another cut before the end of 2019, and in November, we may see the OCR at 0.75%.
