The Housing Minister not being able to correctly say what the Official Cash Rate (OCR) has "surprised" National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis.
Housing Minister Megan Woods was asked about the OCR in an interview with Newstalk ZB on Wednesday morning - ahead of the Reserve Bank's (RBNZ) second monetary policy statement of 2022.
She said "the Official Cash Rate is around 2 percent" - even though it only sat at 1 percent on Wednesday morning before the RBNZ hiked it to 1.5 percent in the afternoon.
After being told she was wrong, Woods said as the Housing Minister, mortgage rates were what she was interested in.
"We do know the OCR does drive mortgage rates but it is important for politicians to know where things are," she admitted to Newstalk ZB.
"I don't deny that."
Willis, who is the National Party's Finance spokesperson and until recently was its Housing spokesperson, said it came as a surprise to her that Woods didn't know the numbers.
"When you're the Housing Minister, you're dealing with people every day who are finding it tough to get into a house and one of the reasons they're going to find it tougher over the next 12 months is their mortgage payments are going up and that's because, of course, we've had the biggest hike in the Official Cash Rate in over 22 years," Willis told AM on Thursday.
"I was surprised to hear that was something that wasn't top of mind for her but I'm always conscious… one day, I'll get asked a number and I won't know it either."
Senior Government minister David Parker, appearing on AM alongside Willis, acknowledged it sometimes felt like a game of "gotcha" when asking politicians about statistics.
"I remember those numbers but I don't remember all of them," he said.
"What I do remember is that interest rates, even after the interest rate increase from the Reserve Bank… yesterday, is still lower than when we took office."
Wednesday's OCR increase was the largest since 2000. The RBNZ said it was needed to "reduce the risks of rising inflation expectations" and provide "more policy flexibility ahead in light of the highly uncertain global economic environment".
