Will OCR statement be Adrian Orr or nothing?

All eyes will be on the new reserve bank governor Adrian Orr and his performance.

All eyes will be on the new reserve bank governor and his performance when the latest cash rate is revealed.

The Reserve Bank is expected to keep rates on hold at 1.75 per cent on Thursday but a few elements will shake things up, including the performance of the new governor and a mandate to focus on employment.

While all 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the official cash rate to be kept at a record low, they will be reading the MPS for any changes at the margin and scrutinising new Governor Adrian Orr's views and plans, in particular after a recent raft of media interviews where he called for richer dialogue.

"This is the first OCR decision since Orr started along with the new Policy Targets Agreement (PTA) that includes the employment objective. And that will make this statement the most keenly read one since the RBNZ signalled the end of its last easing cycle," said ASB Bank chief economist Nick Tuffley.

In March, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Orr signed a new PTA that adds the goal of "supporting maximum levels of sustainable employment within the economy" to the existing goal of price stability.

While it is possible Governor Orr will steer the RBNZ slightly differently to his predecessors "we don't expect him substantially influence the RBNZ's current take on the appropriate direction for monetary policy," Tuffley said. He still expects the first rate increases to come in the second half of next year and notes the bank could hold off for even longer given higher wholesale interest rates, weak business and consumer confidence and tepid inflation. The central bank's most recent forecast from February showed the OCR rising to 1.9 per cent in June 2019, unchanged from its prior projection in November. A full rate increase is still signalled by March 2020 when the benchmark rate is forecast to be 2 per cent. Markets are expecting the first hike in June. The trade-weighted index is about 2.5 per cent below the level the Reserve Bank had projected as an average for the second quarter in its February monetary policy statement, suggesting the tradables sector may become less of a force in keeping inflation low. Tuffley said that could see the RBNZ make a 0.2 percentage increase in its projections for annual inflation over the next 12 months.

Tuffley said "one thing we can be quite confident in is that Adrian Orr will spend a lot more time engaging with the public. In the first five weeks of his term, it already feels like he has given more media interviews than the previous permanent governor gave over his whole five-year term." According to Tuffley, a much higher level of transparency will leave financial markets and the broader public more aware of what the RBNZ is thinking and why. Others agreed.

"Recent interviews have indicated the new governor intends to provide more open communication, so the press conference should provide interesting colour on the RBNZ's assessment and perception of risks going forward," said ANZ Bank New Zealand senior economist Liz Kendall.

"Adrian Orr's presentation style in the post MPS news conference will be more dynamic than his predecessor," said Bank of New Zealand head of research Stephen Toplis.