RBA concerns underline mid-to-long term risks for the housing market One of the more interesting snippets of information to come out of the minutes of the February meeting of the Reserve Bank Board was an acknowledgement by members of the risks generated by a low-rate environment and, in particular, those “linked to higher leverage and asset prices, particularly in the housing market”. They weren’t concerned enough to detour from their stimulus program, but the RBA …
Five investment markets impacted by a big week in Australia It’s been a big week in Australia, with the central bank meeting and the government handing down one of the most significant Budgets in our history. For a detailed analysis of our thoughts on the Federal Budget, you can read a note from Shane Oliver and I. Here, we take a look at the outlook for some asset classes after a busy few days. 1. Cash and …
Four take-aways from the RBA’s October meeting The RBA held its October board meeting today. Though there wasn’t as much movement as we expected, there were four key take-aways: 1. The RBA left the cash rate on hold The RBA left the cash rate on hold at 0.25% for the seventh month in a row. With the RBA recently explicitly stating that its forecast outlook for inflation and employment is not consistent with its objectives …
More action out of the RBA this month to support the economy At its September board meeting, the RBA left interest rates on hold, which was no big surprise. The surprise was in the RBA’s announcement of an extension and increase of the cheap funding it provides to the banks. You might recall back in March, the RBA announced a term funding facility, under which it would provide cheap loans to the banks, locked …
Key highlights from the RBA’s April board meeting Today the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) held its regular board meeting, albeit in extraordinary times for Australia and indeed the world. What we saw today from the RBA was no monetary policy changes, for the simple reason that less than three weeks ago, they made some radical changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The RBA instead reaffirmed its recent actions – cutting the cash rate …
The Reserve Bank board has cut interest rates again by 0.25% at their March meeting, their fourth such cut since June last year. The move comes largely in response to the uncertainty caused by the global outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19), and up until about last Friday I’d have said it was a close call as to whether the bank would cut or stay put. The run of soft domestic economic data over the past …
