WELLINGTON: New Zealand's central bank left interest rates unchanged at 3.5 percent on Thursday and analysts said plans for further hikes appear to have been scrapped due to lower-than-expected inflation figures.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand said it was still gauging the impact of a series of rate hikes that raised the base rate from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent between March and July this year.
"A period of assessment remains appropriate before considering further policy adjustment," Governor Graeme Wheeler said in a statement.
The text of Wheeler's announcement, which is pored over in minute detail by market watchers, omitted a line from September's statement in which the governor said: "We expect some further policy tightening will be necessary."
Analysts said the change in wording was a clear sign that the bank had scrapped the tightening bias that in March prompted it to become the first advanced economy to lift interest rates since 2012.
The recent rate hikes came amid expectations that inflation would test the bank's 1.0-3.0 percent target range as economic growth picked up, fuelled by a construction boom in Christchurch, where a huge rebuild is under way following a devastating 2011 earthquake.
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