RBNZ Hawkesby: Considered 25 bps and 75 bps hikes before settling on 50 bps

Reuters reports that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Deputy Governor Christian Hawkesby said on Monday that policymakers had "certainly considered 25 or 75" basis point increases before ultimately deciding to raise the cash rate by 50 basis points (bps).

Hawkesby told Reuters in a phone interview that if the committee thought that market pricing was wrong and they need to shift it they would consider a larger move than 50 bps.

"At the meeting last week, we sort of reflected that actually market pricing for the OCR (official cash rate) over the period ahead was reasonably similar to what we were putting out in our OCR projections," he said.

Meanwhile, the Kiwi continued its journey south on Friday with the USD moving higher, taking its lead from higher US 10yr bond yields and reaching a low of 0.6160.