Anna Breman says Kiwis can expect RBNZ to have integrity and ‘stay true to the data’
Friday, 20 February 2026
Reserve Bank governor Anna Breman says threats to central bank independence have increased around the world over the past few years but she feels comfortable with the legislative framework here.
Breman was speaking to The Post after the bank brought forward the prospect of a rise in the Official Cash Rate and in the wake of a claim by Labour leader Chris Hipkins that a review Finance Minister Nicola Willis has ordered into monetary policy during the Covid era amounts to an attack on the bank’s independence and “cynical political manipulation”.
Labour’s suspicions over the motivation for the review have largely focused so far on the fact its findings will be published in September, about six weeks before the November 7 election.
The Reserve Bank’s chief economist, Paul Conway, firmly pushed back on Wednesday on a claim by Willis that a previous review the bank had completed into its monetary policies during the Covid period had been “a window-dressing exercise” that amounted to it marking its own homework.
Read more:
Labour accuses Nicola Willis of ‘political manipulation’ over timing of RBNZ Covid review
Reserve Bank holds OCR at 2.25%, says recovery ‘still at an early stage’
“I suggest people read the 2022 review … to decide whether that was a window-dressing exercise or a legitimate effort from a central bank to be a learning institution,” Conway said.
“That review was a very honest assessment that was independently reviewed by two excellent global economists.”
Assistant governor Karen Silk noted the review had contained criticisms of Covid-era monetary assistance, including that the bank was required to keep commitments to lend money to banks under its Funding for Lending programme in place “for a period longer than we would ideally have done”.
“If you were ever to use that tool again, you would structure it slightly differently.”
Breman, who took up the role of governor in December, said she didn’t feel she was walking into a situation where there was unfinished business.
“I don't really think so. We are really focusing on delivering on low and stable inflation because New Zealanders have been hurting for a number of years and we need to ensure that we get the inflation back to the midpoint of the target.
“It’s very clear what our mandate is and we're going to focus on doing a good job.”
Commenting on whether politicians’ words alone could be a threat to central bank independence, Breman said it was “always good if people are nuanced” but that people need to be allowed to say what they want.
“You can expect us to have integrity, to focus on our mandate and to focus on what we need to do. So we have to stay true to the economic data when we do our analysis and the things that we see and hear when we’re travelling the country.”
The bank’s latest monetary policy statement saw it hold the Official Cash Rate at 2.25% but signalled it was likely it would raise that to 2.5% during the final three months of this year.
Previously, the bank had not been forecasting a rate rise until early next year.
Overall its comments have been seen by financial markets as mildly dovish.
Breman confirmed she hoped the bank had hit the sweet spot between responding to the fact inflation was above its target band, and not doing or saying anything that would threaten the recovery — which she described on Wednesday as being in its early stages.
She reiterated the bank’s confidence that inflation was on the way down from its last recorded rate of 3.1%, but acknowledged there were “unfortunately quite a few dangers” — both domestically and emanating from geopolitical risks.
“Domestically, one of the big risks is if we see inflationary pressures earlier than we expect — if spare capacity is not quite what we think right now — or if price-setting behaviour has changed so that firms try to hike prices even when demand is a bit weak.”
Commenting on the broader economic challenges facing the country, Breman highlighted the issue of raising productivity.
Predictable inflation helped in that regard “but there are a lot of things you can’t address with monetary policy”, she said.