Westpac: Reserve Bank of New Zealand has time to wait for more data

According to Golden Ten Data on July 6, Westpac expects the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to keep the official cash rate unchanged at 2.25% at its policy meeting this Wednesday. Westpac stated that a lot has changed over the past six weeks, most notably the much faster-than-expected decline in oil prices. The resulting easing of inflationary pressures gives the Reserve Bank of New Zealand more time to observe the country's economic performance, especially as a large amount of important economic data will be released after the July policy meeting. However, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's forward guidance is still expected to maintain a policy bias towards raising the official cash rate this year.