New Zealand’s central bank said it isn’t appropriate to raise interest rates at the moment and it is “seriously considering” using other tools to curb a housing-market boom. “We at the Reserve Bank see the current overheated housing market as a real threat to future financial stability,” Deputy Governor Grant Spencer said in a speech in Wellington today. “Higher interest rates are not the right policy response at this time” and the central bank “is therefore seriously considering the use of macro-prudential policy,” he said. The RBNZ is reluctant to raise its Official Cash Rate from a record-low 2.5 percent because ... (full story)