Berl chief economist Ganesh Nana said there was welcome acknowledgement that the level of the dollar was not helping the sustainability of future growth and that brought additional economic risks.
"Translating to ordinary speak, this means that the high dollar is slowly, but surely, killing any chance of an export-led recovery.
"In the absence of such a recovery, we risk repeating the mistakes of the last cycle - that is, a recovery based on spending.
"Such spending, in turn, would be founded on a rebound in property prices and, further on, prices that bear little relationship to the value of productive assets or the income-earning potential of the New Zealand export sector."
That was where the disappointment entered, he said.
In the face of this clear and present danger to the New Zealand economy, the response from the central bank was a meek eight-word threat: "In these circumstances we would reassess policy settings."
"But full credit to the Reserve Bank. That was eight words more than anything that had been emanating from any other economic officials or national leadership," Dr Nana said.
"Unless it has escaped everyone's attention, it is worth noting that the OCR is currently impotent.
"Another cut will make little, if any, difference to the long-term level of the exchange rate - not to mention its volatility- and little, if any, difference to interest rates being paid by businesses.
"So, we get words and little else.
"Meanwhile, the exchange rate remains a plaything for speculators, resulting in a price that is far removed from that needed to signal an appropriate allocation of real resources into the export sector."
Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard said in a statement New Zealand's outlook remained highly uncertain.
Merchandise exports were heavily weighted to soft commodities.
As a result, New Zealand had not benefited to any significant extent from the rebound that had occurred recently in global hard commodity prices.
"We consider it appropriate to continue to provide substantial monetary policy stimulus to the economy. The OCR could still move modestly lower over the coming quarters.
"We continue to expect to keep the OCR at or below the current level through until the latter part of 2010."
• At a glance
- OCR remains at 2.5%.
- Interest rates fall across curve.
- Dollar falls against major trading partners' currencies.
- Next move likely to be rise to 3%.
