20 March 2002
New Zealand First Finance Spokesperson Winston Peters says that the Reserve Bank has acted far too quickly in raising
the Official Cash Rate from 4.75 to 5.0% this morning.
“Even by the Reserve Bank’s own projections growth is still not certain and inflation will fall over the next two years.
Dr Brash seems to have sacrificed potential economic growth in a still uncertain world for the potential threat of
inflation.
“It is unfortunate that interest rates have been increased. We are not convinced that there are sufficient inflationary
pressures to justify this. Instead the focus has been on short-term indicators rather than long term growth aims.
ENDS