RBNZ admits more aggressive tightening might have curbed inflation sooner

The Reserve Bank has come under fire for leaving rates low for too long and then essentially having to engineer a recession to get inflation under control. (Image: Getty)

Rebecca Howard

Mon, 29 Sep 2025

More aggressive tightening might have reduced inflation sooner, the central bank said in new work reviewing the response to above-target inflation from 2021/24.“But this would have been difficult given the data available at the time and could have conflicted with the Monetary Policy Committee’s mandate back then, which included maintaining maximum sustainable employment,” chief economist Paul Conway said.The MPC’s strategy helped reduce inflation from its peak in 2022 and return it to within the 1% to 3% target band by S...

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