Cutting the OCR last year was a mistake - Alexander

Fri, 24 Jan 2020

The Reserve Bank made a mistake cutting its official cash rate last year and the resulting reignition of house price inflation means the central bank will probably tighten loan-to-valuation restrictions on bank lending, according to economist Tony Alexander.The former Bank of New Zealand chief economist wrote in his latest newsletter that hindsight shows the cuts of 25 basis points in May and then by 50 points in August, taking the OCR down to 1 percent, were unnecessary, Alexander said."They shouldn't have done that. They didn't need to," he t...

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