Remarks by RBNZ assistant governor, Christian Hawkesby

  • Policy decisions won't be tightly linked to COVID-19
  • Lockdowns only delay spending
  • Demand has proven to be more resilient than anticipated
  • RBNZ considered boosting OCR by 50 bps

The remark in bold is a big statement to make and that has seen the kiwi push up to a session high of 0.6940 against the dollar, but contesting near-term resistance from the 200-hour moving average at 0.6929 currently:

The postponement of the rate hike this month was understandable considering the optics of the situation but if the virus situation worsens, what exactly is the plot here?