Economic Weekly: 5.5% looking like the peak, but no declaration of victory just yet
- Wednesday’s RBNZ Monetary Policy Statement is the big event this week, following on from the July announcement, where the Bank opted to leave the OCR on-hold for the first time since mid-2021
- The headline OCR announcement is widely seen as a bit of a snoozer, with all economists surveyed by Bloomberg last week expecting the cash rate to remain at 5.5% and the market placing the odds of a hike at only around 1%
- It’s hard to disagree with that analysis: there’s been no ‘smoking gun’ over the last six weeks that would prompt the RBNZ to reverse the on-hold stance it began in July
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Mark Smith
Senior Economist
Mark joined ASB in 2017, with over 20 years of public and private sector experience working as an economist in New Zealand and the UK.
His resume includes lengthy stints at ANZ and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and he has also worked at the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the New Zealand Transport Agency. Mark's areas of specialisation include interest rate strategy, macro-economic analysis and urban economics.
Born and bred in the Waikato, Mark studied at Waikato University where he graduated with a Master of Social Sciences, majoring in Economics.
Mark's key strengths are the ability to use his extensive experience, inquisitive nature, analytical ability, creativity and pragmatism to dig a little deeper and to deliver common sense solutions to tackle complex problems.
When not at work Mark likes to travel, keep fit and spend time with his friends and family.
- Email: Mark