WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's central bank governor said on Wednesday there was a possibility of using negative interest rates to stimulate the economy, after the bank had earlier slashed the official cash rate to a record low.
"It is easily within the realms of possibility that we might have to do negative interest rates," Governor Adrian Orr told a news conference after announcing the bank was slashing rates to a record low of 1.0%.
However, he added the hefty 50 basis-point cut, which caught markets off-guard, reduced the possibility of having to use negative interest rates as it would stimulate the economy.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
