BNZ economist Tony Alexander says he thinks the OCR will not be increased until January 2012 because the earthquake will weaken economic activity and confidence in New Zealand.

"Basically a repeat and possibly worse, than what we saw back in September."

He says the main implication with rates not being increased this year is that one may as well stay on the low floating rate.

ASB economist Chris Tennent-Brown says there's an increased chance that the Reserve Bank will cut the OCR, but it is more likely that it will hold the OCR until late 2011 or early 2012.

It's a very major headwind the economy will face this year. We've pushed out our expectation from September to December this year."

He says the data in the last month had already been pushing expectations that way and this adds to the reasons why the Reserve Bank won't be in a hurry to raise rates.

"Over the next few days the Reserve Bank will be trying to assess just what the impact of the earthquake means for the economy as quickly as possible, looking at where the strains are and whether lowering interest rates would be appropriate."

ANZ economist Khoon Goh says the earthquake means the Reserve Bank will hold the OCR at its stimulatory level until the early part of next year - although there is still uncertainty around the extent of damage in Christchurch.

"There's also a slim chance that the Reserve Bank may decide to cut the OCR - we wouldn't rule that out."

J.P Morgan says there is no urgency for the tightening cycle to resume in the wake of today's released inflation numbers, let alone in the aftermath of today's tremor - the second major natural disaster to hit the region in six-months.

The next Monetary Policy Statement meeting is on March, 10.