Source: Reserve Bank of New Zealand
15 December 2025 – In media interviews this week, Governor Dr Anna Breman is speaking about New Zealand’s economic outlook and monetary policy settings, as outlined in the November Monetary Policy Statement (MPS).
Although Dr Breman was not involved in the preparation of the November MPS, or its post-release communications, this statement is being released to enable equitable access to information.
Dr Breman says the November MPS contains a thorough and clearly presented discussion of the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) assessment of economic conditions and the inflation outlook. She also noted that the policy decision and the balance of risks to the outlook are well articulated in the MPC’s summary record of meeting.
“One of my priorities as Governor is to promote understanding of our role and decisions. This is especially important at this time given that I have only recently joined the MPC and assessed recent data.”
Since the November MPS, the economic outlook has evolved broadly in line with the MPC’s expectations, Dr Breman says.
“We continue to see signs that growth is recovering after having stalled in the middle of this year. The labour market is still weak but is expected to recover as demand in the economy strengthens. We remain confident that annual headline consumers price index inflation will decline towards the 2 per cent target mid-point by the middle of next year.”
Dr Breman reiterated that the forward path for the OCR published in the November MPS indicates a slight probability of another rate cut in the near term. “However, if economic conditions evolve as expected the OCR is likely to remain at its current level of 2.25 per cent for some time.
“Financial market conditions have tightened since the November decision, beyond what is implied by our central projection for the OCR,” Dr Breman says. As always, we are closely monitoring wholesale market interest rates and their effect on households and businesses.
“Ahead of our next OCR decision in February, we will continue to assess incoming data, financial conditions, and global developments, and implications for New Zealand’s economic outlook and our medium-term inflation objective.”
Dr Breman reiterated that monetary policy is not on a preset course. “This is why the MPC meets seven times a year to assess the latest economic conditions and forecasts.”
Monetary Policy Statement November 2025: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=961a951afa&e=f3c68946f8
