Adrian Orr's predecessor as governor of the Reserve Bank has criticised how the central bank handled policies during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic - and has issued a warning for political parties touting tax cuts ahead of next year's election. The Reserve Bank has faced a stream of criticism in recent months over the policies implemented since the start of the pandemic, with National and Act criticising policies that they see as having contributed to inflation and the rising cost of living. He said it was clear house prices were soaring at the end of 2020, and the bank could have acted earlier. "Instability in housing and moving to huge, unsustainable levels of house prices is not an appropriate strategy for monetary policy. "When you have inflation as you've got now, then you do have fiscal drag where everyone's going up the tax brackets and it increases the overall tax take.

Source: New Zealand Herald November 18, 2022 23:17 UTC