Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Economic Objective) Amendment Bill
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand currently has two jobs when setting interest rates: keeping prices stable and supporting as many people as possible in work. This bill removes the employment job, so the Reserve Bank will only focus on keeping prices stable — meaning controlling inflation. In practice, this means the Reserve Bank will no longer be required to weigh up unemployment when making decisions about interest rates. The change takes effect the day after the bill is signed into law.
What this affects
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The Reserve Bank will only have to focus on keeping prices (inflation) stable, and will no longer be required to also consider keeping employment high when setting interest rates.
It removes the Reserve Bank's objective of supporting maximum sustainable employment. This leaves the Reserve Bank with only 1 economic objective: achieving and maintaining stability in the general level of prices over the medium term.
Replace section 9(1)(a) and the heading above section 9(1)(a) with: Economic objective (a) the economic objective of achieving and maintaining stability in the general level of prices over the medium term
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage and the committee calls for them. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Bill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.