Craig James can detect a note of restrained glee in the Bank's account of today's board meeting:
"It’s always hard to glean sentiment from the urbane Reserve Bank, but you can sense some underlying excitement or sense of achievement in the latest statement.
In fact the statement should be entitled: “Its working!” In recent months the Reserve Bank appeared unsure whether it had done enough to
The results of the Canberra Times mini-survey are in, and you can read them by clicking on the attached graphic.
Here's today's report:
The ACT will survive its present downturn, returning to economic strength in the year ahead, according to a survey of eight leading forecasters conducted by the Canberra Times.
But they expect the Australian economy as a whole to slow and both ACT and national
Perhaps you were expecting Glenn Stevens to relent. To call off his talk about the need for high rates. He hasn't.
The head of the Reserve Bank has acknowledged that the Australian economy is slowing down but says it may have to slow more.
The speech, delivered to the American Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne yesterday, is seen as confirming that interest rates will remain high well into the
The ANZ Bank says fair value would be US$1.12
The ANZ Bank has sharply revised up its forecasts for the Australian economy predicting at least one - and probably two - more official interest rate hikes before the end of the year.
The forecasts spell trouble for the Rudd government whose leader Kevin Rudd yesterday took responsibility for interest rate moves by telling Parliament that his
Here is today's post-budget address delivered to the Australain Business Economists in Sydney.
He completely rejects the popular argument (endorsed by the Opposition) that interest rates and targeting can't be used to control inflation.
And he is none too pleased about the Coalition's "Soviet-style" approach to the use of prices.
That's how the Reserve Bank sums it up in today's decision to keep interest rates on hold.
It doesn't know whether we are about dive or soar, and says so:
"As a result of earlier decisions by the Board, additional rises in market interest rates and tougher credit standards for some borrowers, there has been a substantial tightening in financial conditions since the middle of last year.
Labour market specialist and all-round macroeconomist Barry Hughes used to advise the former Treasurer Paul Keating and several state Labor Premiers.
He was part of the 1983 decision to float the Australian dollar, among many things other things. A decade before that he tutored me in economics.
He served on the Keating government's Working Nation inquiry which in the early 1990s recommended
Some people think this is a disaster.
Heat has come out of the Australian jobs market for the first time in nearly two years, raising the prospect that the Reserve Bank's program of interest rate rises is having the desired effect.
News yesterday that the number of Australians in jobs had dipped for the first time in 19 months sent the Australian dollar diving almost one complete US cent as
A further interest rate hike is back on the agenda following a surprise revelation that the Reserve Bank board discussed pushing up rates at this month's meeting and a call from the head of the Treasury for the Bank to take tough action against inflation.
The minutes of the Reserve Bank's May 6 board meeting released yesterday confirmed that, as had been believed, the Bank's executive
Ross Gittins does the maths in his Saturday column:
"Since the budget hasn't eased inflation pressure in any significant way, it certainly hasn't reduced the possibility that further increases in interest rates will prove necessary."
And he follows it up today Monday examining what actually was cut:
"The more closely you study last week's budget the less impressive it is."
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