New Zealand’s central bank left interest rates at a record low as sluggish economic growth and a rising currency ease inflation pressure. “The New Zealand dollar has stayed elevated despite recent falls in commodity prices,� Governor Alan Bollard said in a statement in Wellington today after keeping the official cash rate at 2.5 percent. “Should the exchange rate remain strong without anything else changing the bank would need to reassess the outlook for monetary policy settings.� The decision was forecast by all 16 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Investors are betting the central bank won’t raise interest rates until next year because annual inflation is less than the midpoint of the 1 percent to 3 percent range the governor is required to target. Consumer prices rose 1.6 percent in the year through March, less than Bollard forecast last month when he signaled the cash rate would be unchanged for much of 2012. “With the economy continuing to struggle to grow at an above-trend pace and with inflation pressures still benign, there is no case to be made for tightening policy in the foreseeable future,� Darren Gibbs, chief New Zealand economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Auckland, said before the statement. New Zealand’s dollar was little changed after Bollard’s comments. It bought 81.50 U.S. cents at 9:06 a.m. in Wellington from 81.35 cents immediately before the statement. The currency has gained 4.9 percent this year, the second-best performer of 16 tracked by Bloomberg. Bollard has left the cash rate unchanged since March last year to allow the economy to recover after the nation’s deadliest earthquake in 80 years in Christchurch, its second- largest city, and the surrounding Canterbury province, which killed 185 people and closed the central city. To contact the reporter on this story: Tracy Withers in Wellington at twithers@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net

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