She declined the opportunity to explicitly talk the market up or down.
Rather, she stressed a couple of times: “There is no preset course for monetary policy.”
Breman said she would look at all the economic data due out before the Monetary Policy Committee next reviews the OCR on February 18.
She said that if circumstances changed, the Reserve Bank would adjust its stance accordingly.
This said, she noted she was yet to meet all the other Monetary Policy Committee members, who collectively set the monetary policy.
Breman said the outlook for inflation was “favourable” and noted there were risks to both the up and downsides.
There was no major initial market reaction to Breman’s comments being published.
Her predecessor Christian Hawkesby declined to talk down the market when the Herald interviewed him on November 27.
Asked what he made of swap rates rising, Hawkesby said, “I think we had an awareness of what the market reaction might be to our decision…
“We always have our markets team brief us on the likely reactions to different decisions we make. So it sort of fell in the ballpark of what we expected.”
Jenée Tibshraeny is the Herald’s Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter – your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.