New Zealand: Central bank raises interest rates by 50 basis points

New Zealand’s central bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points for the second straight meeting, while forecasting even higher interest rates as central banks around the world struggled to cope with inflation.

The country’s central bank raised interest rates to 2% from 1.5% after rising the same amount in April.

The central bank forecasts that the interest rate will be 3.4% by the end of the year and 3.9% in the period April-June 2023.

He had previously predicted that the interest rate will reach 2.2% in the last quarter of 2022 and will rise to 3.4% in 2024.

The monetary policy committee “agreed that stabilizing inflation is its priority,” the minutes of the meeting said.

New Zealand’s central bank began raising interest rates in October last year, after keeping them at an all-time low of 0.25% for 18 months, in response to the pandemic.

Source: Capital

You may also like