Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Anna Breman delivered a refreshingly boring OCR update

The Official Cash Rate has gone up by 25 basis points. This is the first rise we've seen in three years. It was unanimous around the committee table that it needed to happen because of inflation. Even though petrol and diesel prices have fallen sharply since the Iran war ceasefire deal was struck, they're not back to pre-war levels yet and they won't be for some time. That, of course, is inflationary. You know what struck me, though? Even though this is the first hike in the Official Cash Rate in three years and even though there wasn't consensus among high-profile economists that this should happen - I mean, plenty of them were calling very strongly for it to be held for the sake of the economy - there isn't nearly as much angst around this as there was around any of the decisions Adrian Orr made. Even when they were decisions we wanted, we still got angsty because they were either too late, too early or whatever. Instead, the news conference was boring. So boring, in fact, that it was refreshing. Anna Breman slowly talked us through the decision with a slideshow. She let Paul, on one side of her, pipe up occasionally. Karen, on the other side, was also allowed to chip in. She took questions from journalists on video link. She explained really basic economic concepts to them. The impression you got the whole way through was that Anna Breman is in control. Because we knew this. This was not a surprise. We knew it was coming. It was very well signalled. Seventy percent of economists were expecting it. The market had priced it in. The NZIER Shadow Board was picking it. There was, as I say, consensus around the committee table. It gives the impression that she's not the victim of a knee-jerk reaction but is instead being quite deliberate in the path she's taken. You could argue that her job right now is every bit as hard as Adrian Orr's was, at least towards the end of his tenure. Because this Iran stuff is really mucking around with forecasts, isn't it? That news conference was so boring - and so angst-free - that it gives me some hope. The further we get away from COVID, and from the characters who were around during COVID, the more things might return to their boring averages. Maybe we'll get on with each other and get on with the jobs we're supposed to do a lot better. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.