RBNZ Tightening Blunted as Australian Banks Cut Rates

Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler’s largest monetary tightening among major developed countries is being blunted by Australian-owned mortgage lenders.

Banks including ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd. and Westpac Banking Corp. have lowered some fixed mortgage rates by more than a quarter-percentage point since January as the cost of global funding falls. That’s hindering Wheeler’s efforts to cool the economy with three quarter-percentage-point cash rate increases this year, the first among developed nations in 2014.