Western Bay of Plenty property and business leaders have reacted negatively to Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard's announcement to raise the Official Cash Rate 25 basis points to 2.75 per cent.
Quotable Value's Western Bay spokesperson, Shayne Donovan-Grammer, says the region's property market is not ready for an OCR rise.

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce CEO Max Mason is not happy about the OCR rise.

"I'm a bit disappointed. The region's property market is not doing well enough to justify it," says Shayne.
He believes the announcement will be the first of other rises to come during the year.
"It's another small incident of many incidents."
He says the government's property tax changes announced in May and GST rises in October, combined with OCR rise, will have a big impact on ordinary New Zealanders.
"All these little things add up," says Shayne.
Tauranga Chamber of Commerce CEO Max Mason says the OCR rise might be appropriate in "big city business environments", but it's not applicable in smaller regions such as the Western Bay.
"We still need some degree of consumer spending led recovery. We really don't need this in Tauranga," says Max.
"Also the majority of the likely increase in inflation across the country is the result of one-off government policies such as the rise in GST, tobacco excise, and the impact of the emissions trading scheme on energy prices, and thus shouldn't fall into normal inflation control policy."