New Zealand’s central bank signaled it will keep interest rates on hold for an extended period as inflation slows and the currency remains unjustifiably high.
“A period of assessment remains appropriate before considering further policy adjustment,” Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler said in Wellington after keeping the official cash rate at 3.5 percent. He omitted a comment from his prior statement that the central bank expected some further policy tightening would be necessary to contain future inflation.
The currency fell as traders priced in a 94 percent chance that rates wouldn’t change between now and June. Wheeler has scope to extend a rate pause after inflation slowed more than expected in the third quarter to the bottom of the 1 percent-to-3 percent range the central bank targets.
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