New Zealand manufacturers, exporters call for interest rate cut

New Zealand manufacturers and exporters Friday called for an interest rate cut when the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) reviews the official cash rate (OCR) next week.The New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) made the call in response to the financial problems in Europe and the United States.NZMEA Chief Executive John Walley said in a statement that it was naive to think New Zealand would be insulated from the problems in Europe."While only around 10 percent of our exports are sold there the impact of debt problems there will make it more difficult for New Zealand to borrow offshore," said Walley."The U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank have agreed to lower the interest rate on U.S. dollar liquidity swap lines by 50 basis points. Clearly other central banks are taking concerns in Europe seriously."The drop in New Zealand's terms of trade the purchasing power of exports against a the value of imports reported by the government statistics agency Thursday demonstrated the urgency of acting to help exporters, he said.Terms of trade fell in the September quarter after hitting a 37- year high in the quarter to the end of June, mainly due to the high value of the NZ dollar, according to Statistics New Zealand.The country's merchandise terms of trade fell 0.7 percent in the September quarter after seven straight rises due to export prices falling by 4 percent more than import prices, which were down 3.4 percent.Higher export earnings would put the country in a better position if problems did occur and an OCR cut would help that, said Walley."An OCR cut, in line with what our trading partners are doing, would help keep pressure off the currency in the short-term."Two economic forecasts published Thursday warned the European sovereign debt crisis could derail New Zealand's fragile export- dependent recovery and predicted the RBNZ would keep interest rates on hold when the review was issued on Dec. 8.The independent New Zealand Institute of Economic Research ( NZIER) forecast the OCR would be held until mid-2013 and even indicated the RBNZ would have to cut the OCR if the global situation worsened.Its prediction of a brake on interest rates was echoed in an Economic Update from the ASB Bank, forecasting the OCR would remain on hold until December next year."Even assuming Europe contains the crisis very soon, the first half of next year no longer looks soon enough for the RBNZ to have confidence that the risks to the global economy have been sufficiently defused," it said.