The Reserve Bank of New Zealand left its official cash rate/OCR unchanged at a record low of 0.25%
The Committee also expanded the Large Scale Asset Purchase program potential to NZD 60 billion from the previous NZD 33 billion limits aiming to reduce further the cost of borrowing quickly. Policymakers said that a negative OCR will become an option in the future, although at present financial institutions are not yet operationally ready.
The Committee added that it is prepared to use additional monetary policy tools if and when needed, including reducing the OCR further, additional types of assets to the LSAP program, and providing fixed-term loans to banks.