Finance Minister Nicola Willis will announce the new Reserve Bank (RBNZ) Governor at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Christian Hawkesby has held the Governor role on a short-term basis since the abrupt resignation of Adrian Orr in March. The central bank’s board has been seeking a replacement since April and must appoint a permanent governor before January.
Hawkesby, who was Deputy Governor under Orr, was one of a number of candidates who applied for the job but Bloomberg reports the role has been given to a woman who is based overseas, although it didn’t identify her.
Other media have speculated that it could be Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden, who has worked at the British central bank since 1991.
Her core responsibility is financial stability and she sits on a Prudential Regulation Committee, similar to the one proposed in a Finance and Expenditure Committee report last month.
However, she also serves on the Monetary Policy Committee and is a director on the equivalent of the central bank’s board.
In New Zealand, the RBNZ Governor is the chief executive of the bank, chairs its monetary policy committee, and sits on the board of directors.
Orr was paid $804,000 in the 2024 financial year and 853,810 in 2023. At the Bank of England, Breeden likely earns somewhere between $700,000 and $850,000 in NZ dollars.
13 Comments
Hawkesby needed to slash the OCR to get that job
Current deputy never gets it
Let me guess, Australia
Luci Ellis was deputy Guv at the RBA and did time at BIS as Senior Economist - ticks boxes for HR. But courtesy of the Game of Mates, she's currently making out like a bandit at Westpac.
Compared to Lord Orr, Ellis seems to have a superior CV.
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) includes Sarah Breeden
It's me. Ponzi is spelt with one "Z" right?
look Watercare is doing its bit to limit supply, RBNZ need to do their bit as well here........
(Anyone really looked at Watercare's ability to accelerate investment / capacity here...... ?
No journalism is poor here....
So lower rates, no supply (even if we making noise about 15 story buildings....)
Banks will limit credit to avoid collapse
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What a pity that we feel we need a foreigner, NZ should have enough talent here to fill a role like this. From what I have seen of Christian at the meetings/podcasts he appeared to be doing a good job in difficult circumstances. The appointment should not be political.
Pretty much applies to migrants as well, hell 5.2% unemployment and we are still promoting immigration WTF?
At least trump asking for 100k
Sarah Breeden: Like Andrew, I was focused on domestic developments as I approached this decision, with the international environment an overlay on that. Indeed, I had thought that there was a case for a cut in Bank rate, even absent the international developments, because I judged that that domestic disinflationary process that we have all talked about was progressing as I expected and I thought that it would continue.
I had two factors in mind when I approached this decision: persistence and spare capacity. On persistence, I judged the outlook for that to be very dependent upon what was happening to wages. I had no evidence to doubt the steer from our agents’ pay survey that, come the end of this year—the policy-relevant horizon—wage settlement should be around 3.7% or 3.8%, which is a good percentage point below where we are now. The DMP had the same data.
On spare capacity, it is hard to observe that but I judged that some was opening up. My focus was on the labour market. Employment growth is flat; population growth is a quarter of a percentage point; vacancies are falling and there is evidence of employees wanting to work more hours, all of which suggested to me that there was some spare capacity opening up, and that the labour market was loosening and would continue to do so as we looked ahead.
Given that monetary policy was restricted and I had no evidence to suggest that persistence would be higher than we expected, and with loosening in the labour market, I was happy to cut Bank rate and then played the international risks into that.
Our RBNZ members should face questions, under oath, each decision, helps people understand thinking....
I would like to know one simple historical thing
Did Orr vote first and was it public before others voted?
Could have created an environment where MPC members did not want to vote against the boss..
Perhaps the MPC secretary notes should be released? Asking for a friend
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