Banks › Reserve Bank of New Zealand › History › 8 Apr 2026
Reserve Bank of New Zealand: decision of 8 April 2026
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand held the Official Cash Rate at 2.25%.
Decision
hold
- Rate
- 2.25%=2.25%
- Change
- 0 bp
- Vote
- consensus
- Announced
- 14:00 Auckland time
Sources
- Statement
- rbnz.govt.nz/news-and-events/news/2026/04/…
- Media conference slides (PDF)
- rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/project/sites/rbnz/fi…
- Recorded
- 8 Apr 2026
- Data
- JSON
What the bank said
The Committee said the conflict in the Middle East had disrupted global supply chains and pushed up prices for oil and refined petroleum products, so near-term inflation was expected to rise and the economic recovery to weaken.
It said weak demand and spare productive capacity should limit how far higher costs could be passed on, unlike in 2022 when demand was growing strongly.
The Committee said holding the OCR balanced the benefits of responding pre-emptively to the risk of higher medium-term inflation against the cost of unnecessarily stifling the recovery.
Guidance. The Committee said decisive and timely OCR increases would be required if core inflation, wage growth and medium- and long-term inflation expectations did not stay contained.
“If these conditions are not met, decisive and timely increases in the OCR would be required.”
Before and after
- Previous decision: 18 Feb 2026, held the Official Cash Rate (OCR) at 2.25%.
- Next decision: 27 May 2026, held the Official Cash Rate (OCR) at 2.25%.
- All Reserve Bank of New Zealand decisions and the rate history