WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The addition of an employment goal to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's mandate would support its flexible inflation targeting, RBNZ assistant governor John McDermott said on Thursday.
"We regularly assess the available labour market data and are committed to discussing labour market developments. So my current sense is that, to a large extent, the changes help reinforce the flexibility in our approach," McDermott said in a speech.
The speech was the first public address by the bank's leadership since new governor Adrian Orr took the helm on March 27 and signed a new policy deal with the government to include the goal of "maximising sustainable employment", alongside keeping inflation between 1 and 3 percent.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield in WELLINGTON, Wayne Cole and Swati Pandey in SYDNEY; editing by Richard Pullin)
