There is no RBA monetary policy board meeting in January … so no meeting today. Its beach holiday time in Australia!
The next meeting is in February (Tuesday, February 3).
What will they do at the February meeting?
Cut? (spoiler alert – No)
Hike? (Gasp … NO!)
Hold? (Yep, got it)
Why on hold again?
The RBA repeated in December they have a neutral bias
The oil price drop has translated to big falls in the price of petrol (gasoline for those that call petrol gasoline) … these should translate into a ‘stimulus’ of sorts, and a good size one
A falling AUD should be viewed by the RBA as a good thing, helping the rebalancing in the economy and lessening the need for a rate cut
–
BTW … Ahead of the February meeting we’ll get the Q4 inflation reading released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (on January 28) … and it’ll likley come in low … inflation is not currently an issue in Australia, but i do wonder about the impact of a declining AUD.