Guy Debelle is Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia
- sees tension between strength in jobs, weakness in output data
- how tension resolves in coming months will be important for future path of rates
- says labour market has been surprisingly strong
- says leading indicators of employment remain solid
- consumption growth in 2H18 was "considerably slower" than we anticipated
- says other parts of economy have evolved as expected
- says business liaison consistent with trend growth in GDP
- paying close attention to housing, notes mortgage arrears still low
- says need higher wages growth to achieve inflation target
- says will get a read on March qtr CPI in a few weeks
- says same jobs/output tension evident in many developed economies
- says wage growth is picking up in US, Germany, UK and Japan
- says slowdown in China may have been greater than beijing expected
- effect of China stimulus may take a little while to become apparent
- uncertainty over Sino-US trade dispute has dragged on global growth
(Headlines via Reuters))
I do not see anything in these comments that represent much of a departure at all from recent RBA communications.
Governor Lowe himself made a special point of mentioning the solid jobs market in his statement on April 2. RBA watching jobs/wages, growth, housing.
AUD has popped. I mentioned prior to his speech that selling was occurring on expectations of a dovish Debelle. he ain't hawkish, but these remarks are in line with RBA comments, not any more dovish than those.
Full text: The State of the Economy
I hope y'all saved your money and didn't go in expecting a super easy Mr. D.