“The rise of the OCR today is the chickens coming home to roost after the Government got through COVID with mass money printing that’s had to stop,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

"The Government borrowed $60 billion dollars during COVID, helped by low interest rates. That was the second largest Government COVID spending splurge in the OECD, and it was before the latest outbreak shut Auckland down for three months and counting.

“The mass money printing has seen a huge increase in house prices, and 4.9 per cent inflation on consumer prices. Wages over the same period rose only 2.4 per cent.

“Labour is pumping up the cost of life everywhere from the supermarket to the cost of housing with its policy of borrowing and printing. Now it’s run out of runway and interest rate rises will make for a hard landing.

“The Government can’t use inflationary policies as a cushion for its COVID dithering and wasteful spending. We need to stop paying people to stay home, stop wasting money on boondoggles such as buying land, planning bridges that never get built, and advertising for people to save money on power.

“Some will say that all countries are experiencing inflation, but all policies have used the same mad policies that are inflating the cost of living, and New Zealand is among the highest in the OECD, for example Australia’s equivalent rate of inflation is only 3.0 per cent.

“Today’s rate hike is a sign of things to come and the chickens coming home to roost. New Zealanders are starting to pay the cost of COVID-19, and Jacinda Ardern’s one dimensional, slow approach to handling it."

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