New Zealand Q2 CPI rises 0.4% on-quarter, below expectations
Recasts, adds economist reaction in paragraphs 6, 9-10, updates market reaction in paragraph 7
By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) -New Zealand inflation slowed to a three-year low in the second quarter, taking it close to the central bank's target band and underpinning expectations for rate cuts later this year.
New Zealand's annual inflation was 3.3%, down from 4.0% in the first quarter, and below economist expectations of a 3.4% rate.
"The 3.3% annual price increase is below what was seen during the peak in 2022, and is similar to three years ago,” Statistics New Zealand consumer prices senior manager Nicola Growden said.
Rates have been on hold as the central bank waits for higher rates to work through the economy and return inflation to its target band of 1% to 3%.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) held its cash rate at 5.5% for the eighth consecutive meeting but opened the door to monetary policy becoming less restrictive over time should inflation slow as expected.
"Today's data tilts the risks towards earlier and larger OCR (official cash rate) cuts. In our view a 25bp OCR cut in November looks to be the bare minimum of what the RBNZ will need to deliver over 2024," said ASB senior economist Mark Smith in a note.
The New Zealand dollar rose 0.4% to $0.6071 in the wake of the numbers, largely because investors had already priced in a soft report. Two-year swaps edged up 3 basis points to 4.40%, but were still down a huge 40 basis points since the RBNZ turned dovish last week.
The non-tradeable component of annual inflation at 5.4% remained sticky, as increases in rent, construction costs for new houses and local government taxes stay higher. However, the slightly stronger-than-expected non-tradeables figure was in part due to a change in how Statistics New Zealand calculates road user charges.
ANZ economists Henry Russell and Miles Workman said in a note that the data highlighted weak demand and that increasing spare capacity was now flowing through across the economy.
After the figures were released, ANZ said it expected the central bank to cut rates in November, earlier than its prior forecast of February.
Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie Freed
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
