Cash Rate

Reserve Bank of New Zealand

New Zealand Official Cash Rate

View on New Zealand desk

2.50%

+0.25 pp last change (Jul 8, 2026)

As of Aug 25, 2026 | Daily (policy rate; changes on decision days)

Average
3.88%
Median
3.25%
Low
0.25% Mar 17, 2020
High
8.25% Jul 26, 2007
DateRate
Aug 25, 20262.50
Jul 31, 20262.50
Jun 30, 20262.25
May 29, 20262.25
Apr 30, 20262.25
Mar 31, 20262.25
Feb 27, 20262.25
Jan 30, 20262.25
Dec 31, 20252.25
Nov 28, 20252.25
Oct 31, 20252.50
Sep 30, 20253.00
Aug 29, 20253.00
Jul 31, 20253.25
Jun 30, 20253.25
May 30, 20253.25
Apr 30, 20253.50
Mar 31, 20253.75
Feb 28, 20253.75
Jan 31, 20254.25
Dec 31, 20244.25
Nov 29, 20244.25
Oct 31, 20244.75
Sep 30, 20245.25

About the OCR

The Official Cash Rate is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s overnight policy rate (B2, INM.DP1.N). The current reading is 2.50% as of Aug 25, 2026. This page starts in March 1999, when the OCR began; earlier overnight series in the same file are a different instrument.

The chart is a step: moves are MPC decisions, flats are unchanged settings. Range buttons filter the view only. From Mar 17, 1999 to Aug 25, 2026 (6,889 observations): mean 3.88%, median 3.25%; low 0.25% (Mar 17, 2020), high 8.25% (Jul 26, 2007). Not a mortgage or deposit rate.

Source: RBNZ Wholesale interest rates (B2), series INM.DP1.N. Licence: RBNZ statistics terms: republication permitted with attribution to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (terms). Files: data/raw/hb2-daily-1985-2017.xlsx + data/raw/hb2-daily-close.xlsx.

Reading this series

The Official Cash Rate is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's overnight policy rate, published in the central bank's B2 wholesale interest-rate tables as series INM.DP1.N. The RBNZ's Monetary Policy Committee sets it and announces changes on scheduled decision dates, so between announcements the rate is flat. This page begins in March 1999, when the OCR was introduced; the earlier overnight series in the same workbook is deliberately excluded because it was a different instrument. Because the rate moves only at decisions, the chart is drawn as steps and the table lists each daily observation in reverse date order.

Read the headline number as the latest published setting, then the "versus the previous reading" line: for a rate that has been unchanged for weeks the page also surfaces the date of the last actual move. The mean and median are arithmetic summaries of the OCR readings in this build, so a long stay at one setting pulls them toward it. Chart and Table show the same series two ways; the range buttons only filter the view; Explore adds zoom and pan on request. The OCR is a policy rate, not a mortgage or deposit rate.

About this desk

The Canada desk leads with the Bank of Canada's target for the overnight rate, then CORRA, the Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average. US, UK and other official rates follow in the menu. The target is a policy setting the Bank changes at fixed announcement dates; CORRA is a market benchmark calculated from repo transactions and published, not set, by the Bank. Keeping both on one desk shows the policy rate and the market rate it steers.

All series are read from official files and republished without alteration. As on the US desk, Canadian dates are written month-first. The build covers two Canadian series only; it does not publish a Canadian mortgage or deposit rate because none is ingested. Every desk shows the same set in a different order, so the numbers are identical whichever desk you use. Nothing here is financial advice.