NZ FinMin Robertson, Treasury criticize higher interest rates

“There have been long standing concerns that the market is not working well for New Zealanders,” said New Zealand (NZ) Minister of Finance (FinMin) Grant Robertson said in a statement per Reuters.

The policymaker also said that banks have consistently made high profits over a number of years and their returns have outperformed their peers in other countries.

“There has not been an in-depth look into competition issues in New Zealand's banking for some time, and New Zealand lags other countries such as Australia and the UK into doing a detailed analysis into banking services,” added NZ FinMin Robertson.

The same calls for examining the profitability of the country's banks and investigating whether competition in the sector was working well for consumers.

Earlier in the day, NZ Treasury stated that the domestic demand is being dampened by high interest rates.

NZD/USD remains indecisive

The news fails to move a needle on the NZD/USD as the quote remains sidelined near 0.6200 by the press time of early Tuesday in Asia.