Reserve Bank of Australia governor Lowe speaking before the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Economics from prepared text
Some of the main points from the text:
- Australian economy to expand by 2-1/2 this year
- downward revision this year reflects weak consumption growth
- signs economy may have reached "gentle turning point"
- expecting qrtly GDP growth to increase gradually
- major uncertainty trade dispute between US and China
- we have a lot riding on these disputes being resolved
- central scenario for the unemployment rate to move lower to reach 5% again in 2021
- probable that we will still have spare capacity in the labour market for a while yet
- my view is that a further pick-up in wages growth is both affordable and desirable
- inflation still expected to pick up, but the date at which it is expected to be back at 2% has been pushed out again
- over 2020, inflation is forecast to be a little under 2% and over 2021 it is expected to be a little above 2%
- easier monetary policy mainly works through affecting exchange rate, disposable income
- having cut rates twice in quick succession thought appropriate to wait and assess developments
- reasonable to expect an extended period of low interest rates in Australia
- this reflects what is happening both overseas and here at home
- difficult to escape the fact that if global interest rates are low, they are going to be low here in Australia too
- RBA board is prepared to ease monetary policy further to meet inflation, employment goals
- monetary policy is not the country's only option
I bolded a few of those above, nothing surprising at all.
There will be Q&A to follow, which be more interesting
ps. The link to a live feed is here (scroll down a bit)
Full text of his prepared remarks here:
---
And, also later the RBA will publish its latest quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy, at 0130GMT.
