FILE PHOTO: View of an entrance to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in Wellington, New Zealand November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Lucy Craymer/File Photo

By Lucy Craymer and Renju Jose

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -The New Zealand government will make an announcement related to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Wednesday at 1 p.m. (0100 GMT), Finance Minister Nicola Willis' office said on Tuesday, as markets await the appointment of a new central bank governor.

Christian Hawkesby has been in the top role at the RBNZ since March following the surprise resignation of the former governor Adrian Orr, but his six-month term is due to end in October. The government had appointed him for the temporary period while the role was advertised.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that New Zealand was set to appoint a woman to head its central bank for the first time and could announce the decision as early as Wednesday.

The report did not identify the new governor but said it could be a foreigner.

Willis' office said they would not comment on the report. The RBNZ also declined to comment.

An appointment of a woman from overseas would come as a surprise to markets. Local media named a number of possible contenders for the role with Hawkesby confirming in August that he had applied for the job. Toni Gravelle, deputy governor at the Bank of Canada, told Reuters last week he was no longer in the running for the job.

Whoever takes the reins of the RBNZ faces a tough task: repairing the reputational damage done by a deep downturn in the economy, while defending the bank's independence from a critical government.

Economists hope the announcement will signal the end of a tumultuous period in which both the bank's governor and chairman unexpectedly departed.

Orr, who had a reputation as a maverick policymaker and sometimes wrong-footed financial markets with policy decisions, quit over a dispute with the government about punishing cuts to the central bank's budget. Orr also clashed repeatedly with Willis.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer in Wellington and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Sam Holmes & Shri Navaratnam)