NZ: OCR less likely to rise over the coming year -Westpac

New Zealand’s OCR is less likely to rise over the coming year than markets expect, according to Dominick Stephens, Chief Economist at Westpac.

Key Quotes

“Inflation is currently below the RBNZ’s target, and we doubt that there will be enough growth in the economy to rectify that any time soon. This is mainly because we expect a weak housing market to impact consumer spending. So, we think New Zealand’s OCR will remain on hold until late-2019. With New Zealand lagging the rest of the world in terms of interest rate increases, we also expect that the New Zealand dollar will fall over the year ahead.”