Reserve Bank

 

PHOTO: ROSA WOODS/STUFF Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr. Orr hasn’t been shy about telling Finance Minister Grant Robertson it’s time to loosen the purse strings.

OPINION: The Reserve Bank’s next rate announcement is on Tuesday and the most powerful thing its Monetary Policy Committee can do to boost the economy now is nothing.

The Monetary Policy Committee and governor Adrian Orr have signalled for months that the time has come for the Government to match extraordinary monetary policy with higher fiscal spending in order to fuel faltering growth.

Holding the overnight rate firm at 1 per cent, already a record and extraordinary low reached by a surprise .5 per cent drop in August, may well do more to promote this course of action than anything else the bank can do.

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