RBNZ expected to keep rates on hold this week – UOB

Lee Sue Ann, Economist at UOB Group, sees the RBNZ sticking to the current monetary conditions at its meeting on August 12.

Key Quotes

“We cannot rule out the possibility of negative interest rates in time, but that will come with considerable baggage and we do not expect the RBNZ to employ that option for now.”

“It will continue to use volume announcements (eg the programme is currently NZD60bn in size) as it fine-tunes its policy stance.”

“We expect QE to be expanded to a cap of NZD90bn by August. Another option for the RBNZ is to adjust the QE programme to a type of ‘yield curve control’.”