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RBNZ considered a 50 bps rate hike - assistant governor
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept interest rates steady last week mostly because it would have been hard to communicate the case for a hike on the same day the country was locked down, Assistant Governor Christian Hawkesby said on Tuesday. Hawkesby also said policymakers considered a 50 basis point hike and that future policy decisions were not going to be tightly linked to lockdowns. His comments, in an interview with Bloomberg, helped the New Zealand dollar extend a recent bounce to touch a one-week high of $0.6932. The RBNZ had been poised to lift the benchmark cash rate last week, but instead left it on hold ... (full story)