The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) surprised and raised its monetary policy rate by 50 basis points. Economists at TD Securities stick to their 5.50% peak OCR forecast.

RBNZ bucked consensus and stuck with hiking at a 50 bps clip

“The RBNZ surprised the market and hiked the OCR by 50 bps to 5.25%.”

“Upside risks to inflation have been nudged higher in the near term above Feb MPS forecasts, overriding downside risks to growth.”

“Credit conditions not tightening sufficiently played a key role in the Bank's decision to hike 50 bps.”

“After today's decision, we retain our 5.50% peak OCR call. We see limited read-through of today's RBNZ decision for other Central Banks.”