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Showing 131 - 140 of 342 results for "official cash rate"

Chief economist update: Consumers don't spend on confidence alone

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 18 JAN 2018
... perhaps the more direct cause was the Reserve Bank of Australia's (policy response), it continued to raising the official cash rate from what was then the all-time low of 3% in 2009 to 4.75% by the end of 2010 before it went on a rate cutting spree that ...

Down, down business conditions are down

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 13 DEC 2017
... Economics team last month to which I added: This certainly doesn't fit with the current record low level of the official cash rate (1.5%) nor the current neutral stance in RBA monetary policy. The last time business conditions were nearly this lovely ...

A case for faster wages growth (or not)

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 6 DEC 2017
... market expectations when it conducted its last board meeting for 2017. The Australian central bank kept the official cash rate where it had been since August 2016, at a record low 1.5%. The December statement on monetary was much like in the other months ...

Capex brings cheer

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 1 DEC 2017
... Committee on Economics in his August 2014 testimony. His frustration was understandable for after taking the official cash rate from 4.75% in 2011 to 2.5% in 2014 in a succession of rate cuts, and then to 1.5% (where it is currently), and businesses' ...

Australian business conditions gone gangbusters

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 15 NOV 2017
... confidence remains a bit of a puzzle." This certainly doesn't fit with the current record low level of the official cash rate (1.5%) nor the current neutral stance in RBA monetary policy. The last time business conditions were nearly this lovely (+20 ...

Time to start factoring in an RBA rate cut?

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 6 OCT 2017
... about the ANZ and NAB's call for the RBA to remove at least the "emergency accommodation" that brought the official cash rate to a record low of 1.5%. If the recent trend in Australian consumer spending - or in this case, not spending - continues, we ...

A matter of assumptions

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 26 SEP 2017
... guessing... and so are the "experts''. The ANZ and the NAB guess that the Australian central bank would lift the official cash rate by 25 basis points twice by the end of 2018, taking the current rate of 1.5% to 2%. These are based on their view that ...

Boring is good

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 6 SEP 2017
... year stint as head honcho of the Australian central bank is that Mr. Lowe did nothing - that is, he kept the official cash rate where he found it, at a record low 1.5%...to this day. In a word, boring. But boring is good, for unlike the extreme volatility ...

Australian dollar poses problem for RBA

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 7 AUG 2017
... painted by RBA governor Philip Lowe's statement after the bank's board meeting on 1 August (where it kept the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5%). But despite the RBA's optimistic outlook, the domestic equity market appears to be going nowhere. This ...

Data dictates immediate BOE action

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 5 JUL 2017
No one expected the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to raise or lower the official cash rate from its current 1.5% when its board met on the 4 July, but only a few expected the Australian central bank to follow its bigger overseas peers into a more ...