New Zealand Increases Official Cash Rate to Rein in Inflation

The $10 banknote on display at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in Wellington, New Zealand, on Sept. 1, 2015. Mark Tantrum/Getty Images

The New Zealand Reserve Bank has hiked interest rates by half a percentage point to two percent as it battles to contain inflation, which is currently at a 30-year high of 6.9 percent.

It is the second consecutive 50 basis points (bp) increase to two percent, with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) indicating more hikes would come to return inflation back to its target range of one to three percent.