Yesterday we got the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announcement, their latest Monetary Policy Statement, and Governor Orr's press conference.

In a nutshell,

  • RBNZ left the OCR unchanged
  • NZD popped on a surprise neutral/hawkish shift from the Bank.

The Bank shifted to a neutral policy bias to the extent it

  • projected a steady OCR track to next year
  • removing language previously referring to adding further monetary stimulus if needed.

You can read the Bank as hawkish to the extent it now projects the next rate move will up (not until well into 2021 though).

More:

  • near term growth will be held in check by the threat of the coronavirus, but impact to be temporary
  • but from H2 projected growth looks strong - there will be drivers in the form of government (fiscal) stimulus, house price growth, low interest rates, better terms of trade