The outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in New Zealand is not a “game changer” yet and there is no pressure to act on monetary policy, a senior official at the central bank said today.
“At this stage we don’t see it as a game-changer in the sense that our underlying economic analysis and views should be thrown out of the window and we should start again,” the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) Chief Economist Yuong Ha said in a phone interview with Reuters.
“It’s not like we were 12 months ago,” he added.
However, Ha said the outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant in New Zealand has raised some economic uncertainty.
Last week, the RBNZ delayed raising rates after the country was put into a Covid-19 lockdown following the outbreak, although policymakers flagged tightening was on the cards before the year was out. — REUTERS
