Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler is being accused of hurting exporters and home owners by unnecessarily lifting interest rates.
Mr Wheeler on Thursday held the central bank's official cash rate at 3.5 per cent after a series of hikes between March and July.
He said inflation, running at an annual rate of one per cent, was modest and the housing market had cooled since late 2013 with the introduction of lending restrictions.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman says inflation projections and monetary policy settings were clearly wrong.
"New Zealanders have suffered unnecessarily through the loss of jobs and having to pay higher interest rates, and exporters have been damaged," he said.
"Graeme Wheeler hiked interest rates on the expectation that inflation would rise, but that hasn't been the problem."
Dr Norman said inflation was rooted in house and electricity prices, and pressures would remain because the government wasn't sorting them out.
The Council of Trade Unions said Mr Wheeler should cut rates.
"It would send a strong signal that the Reserve Bank means business on reducing the over-valued exchange rate and would encourage productive job growth in many parts of the economy," said CTU economist Bill Rosenberg.
Mr Wheeler said that although some pressure has been taken off the New Zealand dollar by lower commodity prices and increased global financial market volatility, its level remained unjustified and unsustainable.
"We expect a further significant depreciation," Mr Wheeler said.
He declined to offer a timeframe for future official cash rate rises saying: "A period of assessment remains appropriate before considering further policy adjustment".
After last week's inflation data, economists forecast no OCR increases until late 2015.
The kiwi dollar has dropped about two per cent against the US dollar on Thursday morning as the market reacts to the Reserve Bank statement and an earlier more positive assessment of the US economy from the States' central bank than expected.
Share
