The NZIER shadow board thinks the Reserve Bank should keep the official cash rate on hold at 2.5 per cent tomorrow.

The New Zealand dollar has continued its rally, topping 86 US cents and charting a new record on a trade-weighted basis.

The New Zealand dollar ran hot again yesterday, hitting another post-float high on its Trade-Weighted Index (TWI) and raising the possibility of overt Reserve Bank intervention to bring it back down.

Climbing house prices and a growing proportion of lending at high loan-to-value ratios are stoking fears at the Reserve Bank of a boom followed by a destructive bust.

Stellar growth in the last three months of 2012 indicates the economy started this year with more momentum than expected - sufficiently more, perhaps, to counter the headwind of drought.

The International Monetary Fund counsels against "messing with" the NZ monetary policy framework.

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler delivered a warning to the financial markets yesterday - don't assume interest rates can only go up from here.

Bill English says the Government is "considering formalising" proposals to restrict bank lending and other "tools" to control credit growth.

The New Zealand government had a smaller than expected first-half operating deficit after Treaty of Waitangi settlement costs didn't eventuate in the period.

A slight rebound in the number of new home listings last month did little to alleviate pressure in the property market.

A month after releasing new budget forecasts, the New Zealand government is tracking above them.

The Reserve Bank is unlikely to cut its official cash rate, economists say, despite another quarter of weak inflation. The consumers price index fell 0.2 per cent in the December quarter, when the markets and the Reserve Bank had expected a 0.1 per cent r

Low floating mortgage interest rates look set to lift in the second half of next year, economists say.