The Reserve Bank has cut the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.5%.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s decision is the second of 2025 and is the first since Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr\u00a0announced his resignation<\/a>\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n The rate is the lowest it’s been since October 2022.<\/p>\n It comes amid\u00a0turbulent global market conditions<\/a>, which followed US President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement of\u00a0sweeping global tariffs<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n Despite that, economists widely expected the Reserve Bank to make another cut to the OCR.<\/p>\n Inflation sits at 2.2%, within the central bank’s target band of 1 to 3%.<\/p>\n Earlier this week Christian Hawkesby was appointed governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) for a six-month term.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Reserve Bank said as the extent and effect of Trump\u2019s tariff policies become clearer, it has scope to lower the OCR further as appropriate.<\/p>\n \u201cFuture policy decisions will be determined by the outlook for inflationary pressure over the medium term.\u201d<\/p>\n It said the global policy response will be an important consideration in gauging the implications of increased tariffs for medium-term inflation in New Zealand. It also noted the recent decline in the New Zealand dollar will help cushion the decreased global demand for New Zealand exports.<\/p>\n In reaction to the OCR cut, ASB announced it was dropping interest rates for floating home and business loans, along with savings accounts.<\/p>\n Its housing variable rate was reduced 25 basis points to 6.64%, the orbit variable rate was reduced by 25 basis points to 6.74% and the back my build rate was lowered by 25 basis points to 4.19%.<\/p>\n All savings accounts were lowered by 25 basis points. Changes will be effective from April 16.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Westpac’s choices floating and choices offset home loan rates will drop by 25 basis points to 6.74%, and its choices everyday advertised revolving rate will drop by 25 basis points to 6.84%.<\/p>\n It said most variable business loan rates will also reduce by the same amount, and announced a 25 basis point cut to interest on savings accounts.<\/p>\n At Kiwibank, variable and offset variable rates were lowered by 25 basis points to 6.50%. Its revolving loan was lowered 25 basis points to 6.55%.<\/p>\n Deposit rates were also lowered by 25 basis points.<\/p>\n ANZ dropped its floating home loan rates by 20 basis points to 6.69%, and flexible loans to 6.80%.<\/p>\n It also reduced its serious saver rate by 20 basis points.<\/p>\n BNZ is also cutting floating rates by 25 basis points. Yesterday it lowered a range of term deposit rates.<\/p>\n Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the lowered OCR will be good news for businesses and households, with the rate coming down by 200 basis points since August last year.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, for someone with a $500,000 mortgage over 25 years, a two percentage point drop in their interest rate reduces their repayments by about $300 a fortnight.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fall in the OCR is also good news for businesses because it means more money flowing through their tills.”<\/p>\n However, Willis warned increasing global uncertainty may “present further challenges” to the economy in the coming months.<\/p>\n \u201cNow more than ever, we need to ensure we get value for every dollar of public money spent.\u201d<\/p>\n Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said: \u201cWhile the Reserve Bank is doing its job to cushion the blow of a global economic downturn, Nicola Willis continues to pretend like everything is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNew Zealanders are rightfully nervous about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver right now, yet all they\u2019re getting from their Government is \u2018we\u2019ve got this.\u2019 That\u2019s not a plan, that\u2019s complacency.\u201d<\/p>\n She said now is the time to be investing in jobs, health and homes to \u201cboost our economy\u201d and lift people up.<\/p>\n ~1 NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Reserve Bank has cut the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.5%. Today\u2019s decision is the second of 2025 and is the first since Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr\u00a0announced his resignation\u00a0last month. The rate is the lowest it’s been since October 2022. It comes amid\u00a0turbulent global market conditions, which followed US President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,222,174,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-latest-news","category-nz-news","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13251,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249\/revisions\/13251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Banks move<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Willis reacts<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Labour criticises economic management<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n