RBNZ Breman: Goal Is To Return Inflation to Target In All Circumstances

• Published on
• 20 Feb 2026, 02:12 PM

--By Sophia Rodrigues

(Sydney, February 20, 2026) – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s mandate is to return inflation to target regardless of conditions, Governor Anna Breman said Friday.

In a speech at Business Canterbury lunch, Breman reminded the RBNZ’s monetary policy decisions are based on the forecast for where inflation is heading, and to ensure it doesn’t overreact to data volatility.

“The Monetary Policy Committee has a clear mandate, to guide inflation back to target in all sorts of conditions,” Breman said.

Breman said the RBNZ’s judgement that inflation will return to the target range in the current quarter and to the target midpoint over the next 12 months is a critical one, leading to the decision to leave the Official Cash Rate unchanged at 2.25% this month.

“We needed to assess whether the recent increase in annual consumer price inflation is a sign of broader inflationary pressure, or just a temporary bump in inflation’s path lower,” she said.

The economy has room to recover while inflation moves to the 2% target midpoint, she added.

Risks to the inflation outlook are balanced, Breman said.

--Contact: Sophia@centralbankintel.com