New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters rebuked the country’s new Reserve Bank governor, Anna Breman, for wading into US domestic politics after she signed a statement with other global central bankers backing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“The RBNZ has no role, nor should it involve itself, in US domestic politics. We remind the governor to stay in her New Zealand lane and stick to domestic monetary policy,” Peters wrote on social media.
He added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade would have offered the same advice had the governor sought it, which she did not.
The RBNZ is independent of the central government on matters of monetary policy, Peters said.
The incident underscores how governments – particularly in smaller, export-heavy economies such as New Zealand – are walking an increasingly fine line in the era of Donald Trump, wary that even symbolic gestures of multilateral solidarity may be read as political alignment and invite retaliation through tariffs or trade pressure.
Breman, who began her five-year term at the helm of the RBNZ on December 1, was one of number of central bank chiefs – including European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock – who, on Tuesday, threw their support behind Powell in response to the threat of criminal charges being levelled at the US monetary authority.
“The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve,” the central bankers said in the statement. “It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability.”