He noted the quarterly inflation rate had fallen below 1 percent in December and the "inflation surge" appeared to be over. That should lead to a significant fall in interest rates this year. "For longer-term interest rates, there's likely to be a continued downward drift as we creep closer to anticipated OCR cuts." ANZ economists forecast that one-year fixed rates will be about 6.1 percent by the end of the year. "If we were to see global interest rates fall that could mean that some of those lower rates we are talking about for later in the year or next year might arrive sooner."

Source: Stuff February 06, 2024 09:19 UTC