Reserve Bank cuts official cash rate to 5.25%
The Reserve Bank has announced the first cut in the Official Cash Rate some 15 months since it climbed to 5.5% in May 23 and the first cut since March 2020, a whole 41 months ago when it was dialled down to 0.25% when all the craziness started.
To say this is good news is to say Lisa Carrington is a good rower … its GOLD!
So finally!!! we’re officially on the move since holding the OCR at restrictive levels for the last 15 months and more since it started climbing 20 months prior to that while inflation eased from its peak of 7.2% in July 22 and now at 3.3% shouldering the RBNZ targeted under 3% band.
Most banks have already dropped floating rates accordingly by about 0.25% being the first time floating rates have dropped with previous token adjustments having been in select fixed term rates only, this is the start of things to come, breathing life back into the economy just a bit but more importantly injecting a shot of confidence into the market that things are looking up … after some 35 months of driving with the handbrake on … we can now move a bit freer.
So from here, we’re on the downhill run to interest rates easing in earnest in the coming months and year … something we’ve been talking about for a while, and as the Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr put it, “its darkest before dawn and we’re in dawn at the moment” with a view to “economic activity re-normalising as interest rates come back down and inflation pressure taking out”, we’re now heading in the right direction at a steady and controlled pace which is the right strategy to avoid the bends.
Check out the link to the Reserve Bank official report here
… and a handy little link to how it works with some videos here
Exciting stuff … we’re going to enjoy reporting on progress from here … we turned a corner in the right direction today.