RBNZ holds rates, hints at staying high for longer

Staying steady: Orr speaks during a news conference in Wellington. The central bank’s decision was an interim review rather than a quarterly monetary policy statement, and thus, the bank did not issue new forecasts. — Bloomberg

WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s central bank is keeping interest rates unchanged and says they may need to remain restrictive for a longer period of time to return inflation to target.

The Reserve Bank New Zealand’s (RBNZ)Monetary Policy Committee held the official cash rate at 5.5% yesterday, as predicted by all 22 economists in a Bloomberg survey.