NZIER’s Shadow Board favours further QE over negative OCR

The significant changes in monetary policy implementation in recent weeks in response to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak has led us to revamp the format of our Shadow Board reporting. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) on 16 March 2020 announced it was undertaking an emergency 75 basis points cut in the OCR to take it to 0.25%. The central bank indicated in its accompanying statement it expected the OCR to remain at 0.25% “for at least the next 12 months”.