Financial markets looking for vital policy signals in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s six-weekly official cash rate announcements are first faced with three words: Tēna koutou katoa.

It’s a greeting from governor Adrian Orr in the indigenous Māori language, meaning “welcome all”. Orr is equally polite in his use of te reo (Māori language), ending his statements with meitaki – “thank you”.

Of half-Irish, half-Cook Island ancestry, Orr was brought up in the central North Island of New Zealand