The Eastern Bay Chamber of Commerce isn't surprised the Official Cash Rate's gone up.

The Reserve Bank's increased the OCR by .25% to 3%.

This isn't as big an increase as Governor Allan Bollard earlier suggested, and he's indicated further increases will be more gradual than expected.

Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Gerard Casey says local businesses would have fared better without the latest increase.

Mr Casey says while the Chamber of Commerce had hoped that there would be no rise, they were aware that it was going to happen, so it was inevitable.

He says if the OCR stayed the same, things would have stabilised and it would have dropped the dollar down, so exporters and tourists would have had a better advantage.