New Zealand

No amount/estimate: April 2020: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) (i) announced a corporate facility that will offer up to NZD500 million per week in open market operations with banks against corporate paper and asset-backed securities for 3 months; and (ii) established a new Term Auction Facility (TAF), which allows banks access to collateralized loans of up to 12 months. On 10 March 2021, RBNZ announced that it will be removing the corporate facility (see item i) and TAF (see item ii), citing that financial market conditions have improved significantly since March 2020 when these facilities were introduced and the usage of these special facilities has been very low in the last six months. The final tenders for both facilities will be held on 16 March 2021.

(i) No amount/estimate: April 2020, The RBNZ is introducing a Term Lending Facility (TLF), a longer-term funding scheme for banks at low interest rates for up to 3 years duration. 4 May 2020, Further details have been announced, i.e., under the facility, RBNZ will offer to lend funds to banks at the official cash rate of 0.25%, and will be available to use for six months, starting from 26 May 2020 and ending on 29 October 2020. On 20 August 2020, RBNZ announced that the term has been extended to five years from three years; (ii) 7 April 2020, The RBNZ announced that it has added NZD3 billion (equivalent to 30% on issue) of Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) debt to the Large-Scale Asset Program (LSAP) (See Measure 10 notes: No breakdown).

(i) April 2020, NZD0.9 billion debt funding agreement (convertible to equity) with Air New Zealand to ensure continued freight operations, domestic flights, and limited international flights; (ii) No amount/estimate: May 2020, The New Zealand government provides loans of up to NZD100,000 to small businesses that employ 50 or less employees.

(i) April 2020, NZD0.5 billion for healthcare-related spending to reinforce capacity; (ii) No amount/estimate: 28 March 2020, The government announced the temporary removal of tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response; (iii) 10 November 2020, The New Zealand Government agreed to buy Pfizer BioNTech product to vaccinate 750,000 people. The government has set aside NZD66.3 million for medical supplies and infrastructure to ensure New Zealand is ready to launch a COVID-19 Immunisation Programme as soon as a safe and effective vaccine is available; (iv) No amount/estimate: 19 November 2020, The Government has made an in-principle agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica to buy up to 5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses; (v) No amount/estimate: 9 March 2021, New Zealand’s first large-scale COVID-19 vaccination clinic has opened to start vaccination of border workers’ household contacts ; (vi) 10 March 2021, The Government has announced its plan for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, i.e., in the next 3-4 months, it will start to reach 2 million people in most at risk groups; (vii) No amount/estimate: 8 June 2021, Pfizer has scheduled delivery of an estimated 1 million doses of vaccine to New Zealand in July.

May 2020, The RBNZ has doubled the overdraft on the crown settlement account to NZD10 billion for April–June 2020 to meet the government's short-term cash needs.

April 2020, The RBNZ has been providing liquidity in the foreign exchange swap market and reestablished a temporary United States (US) dollar swap line (USD30 billion) with the US Federal Reserve.

April 2020: (i) Cancellation of discretionary domestic air travel; (ii) Closing of the borders to all but New Zealand citizens, who must self-isolate for at least 14 days upon entry; (iii) 9 June 2020, The government announced that New Zealand has moved to Alert Level 1 starting 8 June 2020, where everyone can return without restriction to work, school, sports, and domestic travel, and can get together with as many people. Controls at the borders remain for those entering New Zealand, including health screening and testing for all arrivals, and mandatory 14-day managed quarantine or isolation; (iv) 12 January 2021, All travellers, including anyone exempted from the pre-departure testing requirement, are still required to complete the 14 days mandatory isolation; (v) 12 January 2021, Beginning 11.59 pm on Friday 15 January 2021, travellers arriving on all flights from the UK and US must have had a negative test result for COVID-19 in the 72 hours before their departure; (vi) 12 January 2021, Passengers from any destination, excluding Australia, Antarctica, and some Pacific Islands, will be required to undergo Day 0/1 testing upon arrival in New Zealand ; (vii) 15 January 2021, Travellers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health; (viii) 13 March 2021, Passengers from Niue can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand on Wednesday 24 March 2021 NZT (Tuesday 23 March 2021 Niue time) ; (ix) 6 April 2021, Quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will start on Monday 19 April; (x) 23 April 2021, Travel between New Zealand and Western Australia has been paused, pending further advice from the state government ; (xi) 27 April 2021, Quarantine-free travel will be recommenced from Western Australia at 12 noon, 28 April 2021 for travellers who have not been identified as contacts. For those identified as close contacts, they will need to complete 14 days of self-isolation and provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test before departure for New Zealand; (xxii) The pause in New Zealand’s quarantine-free travel with Victoria will be extended until 7:59pm on Friday 4 June; (xxiii) 28 May 2021, The Government announced that people flying to New Zealand from Australia must return a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of departure if they have been in Victoria on or after 20 May and who are not otherwise prevented from travelling to New Zealand; (xxiv) 10 June 2021, The government announced that there will be a pause on quarantine-free travel with Victoria for seven more days; (xxv) 21 June 2021, The pause in quarantine-free travel with Victoria was lifted at 11:59pm on Tuesday 22 June 2021 ; (xxvi) 22 June 2021, Quarantine-free travel from New South Wales to New Zealand will pause while the source of infection of new cases announced in Sydney is investigated. The pause will come into force from 22 June 2021, 11.59pm NZT and be in place for 72 hours initially.