New Zealand’s Rate-Hike Gamble Comes at a Tough Time

New Zealand has reluctantly joined the widening group of countries raising interest rates. This isn’t an increase that reflects a hot economy, as was the case when the last tightening cycle that began in 2021, or runaway inflation. Officials more or less talked themselves into a corner. In the process, they have handed ammunition to those arguing that the less said the better when it comes to monetary policy communications.