OCR on hold good for workers

Workers feeling the pinch from high living costs will welcome interest rates staying put, FIRST Union Finance Sector Secretary Andrew Casidy said today.

The Official Cash Rate was left at 2.5 per cent today by the Reserve Bank.

Andrew Casidy said that for most workers, particularly those without access to unions, wages were not keeping up with the high cost of living driven by food, petrol and other items.

"Any increase to interest rates would have put further pressure on already stretched household budgets," he said.

Despite improvement in some sectors, fundamental weaknesses remained in the economy, and the government could not rely on the Canterbury rebuild alone to boost employment and economic activity, Andrew Casidy said.

"Treasury's pre-election update this week noted some of these significant risks. In our view there is no ground for an increase in interest rates while such uncertainty remains," Andrew Casidy said.

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