RBNZ leaves OCR unchanged at 0.25%, maintains QE at NZD100 billion

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

At its September monetary policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) board members decided to keep the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unadjusted at a record low of 0.25% for the fourth month in a row, as widely expected.

The RBNZ maintained its quantitative easing (QE) programme size at NZD100 billion.

Additional takeaways

Additional monetary instruments include negative OCR, purchases of foreign assets.

Agreed that the alternative instruments can be deployed independently.

Funding for lending programme would be ready before the end of this calendar year.

Ongoing virus-led activity restrictions continued to dampen economic activity, and business and consumer confidence.

About RBNZ Interest Rate Decision

RBNZ Interest Rate Decision is announced by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. If the RBNZ is hawkish about the inflationary outlook of the economy and rises the interest rates it is positive, or bullish, for the NZD.

NZD/USD reaction

On a status-quo RBNZ decision, the NZD/USD bounced-off monthly lows at 0.6599 to near 0.6620 region, still down 0.20% on the day.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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