Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr resigns

6th March 2025 By Staff Reporter | news@propertyticker.co.nz | @propertyticker

The Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr has resigned after seven years in the post and will leave on 31 March 2025.

Orr was appointed governor of the bank in March 2018, filling the vacancy left by the departure in 2017 of Graeme Wheeler. He was reappointed in March 2023 for a second term, which was supposed to end in 2028.

“Over the last seven years we’ve significantly built our capability and capacity so we can respond to an increasing complex and challenging global environment,” Orr said in a statement released this afternoon.

“We’ve made considerable progress in our approach to monetary and financial policy, alongside driving much-needed maturity uplifts in our balance sheet capital, digital, data and technology. 

“We’ve advanced many major, multi-year programmes, to modernise and strengthen the RBNZ and the New Zealand financial system and led the implementation of strategies related to the Future of Money and Cash, Future of Payment and Settlements, Financial Inclusion, Climate Change, and Māori Access to Capital.”

He added that he was “incredibly proud of the RBNZ’s people, our work and the impact of our mahi on all New Zealanders”.

“I leave the role with consumer price inflation at target, and an economy in a cyclical recovery following the long period of Covid-related disruption.

“The financial system remains sound. However, there is much work left to do on the major multi-year strategies RBNZ is following. Ongoing focus and funding will be critical to these projects’ success.” 

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she wished Orr well for the future.

She added that Deputy Governor Christian Hawkesby will be acting governor until 31 March 2025. From 1 April, the minister of finance, on recommendation from the RBNZ board, would appoint a temporary governor for a period of up to six months.

Orr’s tenure saw him navigate the bank through the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the inflation-blighted recovery, and then recession and growing unemployment.

The Reserve Bank acted to control inflation by hiking the official cash rate to 5.5% in May 2023 but it fell to 3.75% last month after inflation dropped to the bank’s 1% to 3% target.