![Greens ditch quantitative easing policy](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=793)
Greens ditch quantitative easing policy
The Green Party has abandoned its policy of quantitative easing - otherwise known as printing money - after almost a year of punishing backlash from political opponents.
The Green Party has abandoned its policy of quantitative easing - otherwise known as printing money - after almost a year of punishing backlash from political opponents.
The Prime Minister John Key believes first-home buyers should be exempt from proposed restrictions to low-deposit home lending.
The Reserve Bank has kept its official cash rate unchanged at 2.5 per cent at today's monetary policy statement.
The recent drop in the value of the New Zealand dollar against the US currency could have a caught a number of companies off-guard.
An air of optimism about the US economy has put the skids under the New Zealand dollar and a drop below US78c could herald further falls, market strategists said.
The most difficult aspect of the Reserve Bank's dilemma is that the longer interest rates stay low.
The OECD is urging New Zealand to adopt a deposit insurance scheme to limit depositors' losses in the event of a bank failure.
The Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said the central bank had intervened in the currency market to take on the high New Zealand dollar in recent months and was prepared to "scale up" its activities if necessary.