N.Z. Raises Rates for Second Month as Growth Quickens: Economy

New Zealand’s central bank raised interest rates for the second time in two months as an economic recovery gathers pace, spurring gains in the local dollar.

“It is necessary to raise interest rates toward a level at which they are no longer adding to demand,” Governor Graeme Wheeler said in a statement in Wellington after increasing the official cash rate by a quarter percentage point to 3 percent, as forecast by all 15 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will assess the extent to which currency gains curb inflation pressures, he said.