Monetary policy

The OCR, and how the Reserve Bank talks about it

The Official Cash Rate is the interest-rate lever the Reserve Bank pulls to steer inflation. The consumers price index leaves out mortgage interest, so an OCR move can change what a household pays without moving the headline inflation figure. This page tracks every decision since 2019, and scores the language around each one.

2.75%OCR since 2 Sep 2026 (+25 bps)

Read the analysis of this decision →

Official Cash Rate statement leaned toward tightening leaned toward easing

The stepped line is the OCR after each decision. The bars beneath show each statement’s guidance lean — tightening-bias phrases minus easing-bias phrases — with the scale running to ±5. The final bar, September 2026, is the tallest tightening bar in the series.

How the language score works

For every decision the Bank publishes a Summary Record of Meeting. We score that text by counting phrases from a fixed, published list: how it labels the current stance (restrictive, neutral, stimulatory), and its guidance lean — the number of tightening-bias phrases minus easing-bias phrases. It is a measure of how the Bank writes, not a judgement of whether it is right. The method and the full lexicon are in the repository; nothing here involves a language model.

Every OCR decision since February 2019, newest first
Date	Meeting	OCR	Change	Stated stance	Guidance lean	Statement
2 Sep 2026	MPS	2.75	+25 bps	stimulatory	+4	operator paste
8 Jul 2026	MPR	2.50	+25 bps	stimulatory	0	archived
27 May 2026	MPS	2.25	hold	stimulatory	+1	archived
8 Apr 2026	MPR	2.25	hold	unstated	0	archived
18 Feb 2026	MPS	2.25	hold	stimulatory	-1	archived
26 Nov 2025	MPS	2.25	−25 bps	unstated	-5	archived
8 Oct 2025	MPR	2.50	−50 bps	stimulatory	-4	archived
20 Aug 2025	MPS	3.00	−25 bps	unstated	-4	archived
9 Jul 2025	MPR	3.25	hold	unstated	+2	archived
28 May 2025	MPS	3.25	−25 bps	neutral	-1	archived
9 Apr 2025	MPR	3.50	−25 bps	unstated	-4	archived
19 Feb 2025	MPS	3.75	−50 bps	unstated	-4	archived
27 Nov 2024	MPS	4.25	−50 bps	restrictive	-2	archived
9 Oct 2024	MPR	4.75	−50 bps	restrictive	-1	archived
14 Aug 2024	MPS	5.25	−25 bps	restrictive	-2	archived
10 Jul 2024	MPR	5.50	hold	restrictive	0	archived
22 May 2024	MPS	5.50	hold	restrictive	0	archived
10 Apr 2024	MPR	5.50	hold	restrictive	0	archived
28 Feb 2024	MPS	5.50	hold	restrictive	+1	archived
29 Nov 2023	MPS	5.50	hold	mixed	+1	archived
4 Oct 2023	MPR	5.50	hold	restrictive	0	archived
16 Aug 2023	MPS	5.50	hold	restrictive	0	archived
12 Jul 2023	MPR	5.50	hold	restrictive	0	archived
24 May 2023	MPS	5.50	+25 bps	restrictive	0	archived
5 Apr 2023	MPR	5.25	+50 bps	restrictive	0	archived
22 Feb 2023	MPS	4.75	+50 bps	restrictive	+1	archived
23 Nov 2022	MPS	4.25	+75 bps	unstated	0	archived
5 Oct 2022	MPR	3.50	+50 bps	unstated	0	archived
17 Aug 2022	MPS	3.00	+50 bps	neutral	+2	archived
13 Jul 2022	MPR	2.50	+50 bps	unstated	0	archived
25 May 2022	MPS	2.00	+50 bps	unstated	+1	archived
13 Apr 2022	MPR	1.50	+50 bps	stimulatory	+1	archived
23 Feb 2022	MPS	1.00	+25 bps	stimulatory	+1	archived
24 Nov 2021	MPS	0.75	+25 bps	unstated	+2	archived
6 Oct 2021	MPR	0.50	+25 bps	unstated	0	archived
18 Aug 2021	MPS	0.25	hold	unstated	+1	archived
14 Jul 2021	MPR	0.25	hold	unstated	0	archived
26 May 2021	MPS	0.25	hold	unstated	0	archived
14 Apr 2021	MPR	0.25	hold	stimulatory	+1	archived
24 Feb 2021	MPS	0.25	hold	stimulatory	-2	archived
11 Nov 2020	MPS	0.25	hold	unstated	-2	archived
23 Sep 2020	MPR	0.25	hold	stimulatory	-1	archived
12 Aug 2020	MPS	0.25	hold	unstated	0	archived
24 Jun 2020	MPR	0.25	hold	stimulatory	0	archived
13 May 2020	MPS	0.25	hold	unstated	-1	archived
16 Mar 2020	MPS-U	0.25	−75 bps	unstated	0	archived
12 Feb 2020	MPS	1.00	hold	unstated	0	archived
13 Nov 2019	MPS	1.00	hold	stimulatory	0	archived
25 Sep 2019	MPR	1.00	hold	unstated	0	archived
7 Aug 2019	MPS	1.00	−50 bps	stimulatory	-1	archived
26 Jun 2019	MPR	1.50	hold	unstated	0	archived
8 May 2019	MPS	1.50	−25 bps	unstated	-1	archived
27 Mar 2019	MPR	1.75	hold	unstated	0	archived
13 Feb 2019	MPS	1.75	hold	unstated	0	archived

Statement text is retrieved from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine because the RBNZ website blocks automated access. Each row links to the exact archived snapshot the score was computed from.