Glenn Stevens was Reserve Bank of Australia Governor for a decade between 2006 and 2016. he spoke at gas industry annual conference.

  • "When I finished in central banking, nearly seven years ago now, inflation was too low and it was difficult to get it to go up,"
  • "Who would have thought that we now be in a world where it's too high, and I think it will be difficult to get it to come down."
  • "I could be wrong but, if that is the case, then I think we've also transitioned from a world in which interest rates were low for long[er] … to one in which they will be elevated for some time. "Not necessarily that much higher than now, but I think a return to the ultra-low rates that we saw for a while there is unlikely."

Stevens is skeptical that current Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Lowe can bring inflation down without a recession:

  • "It's worth recalling that, since World War II, most significant falls in US inflation happened during or after a recession,"
  • "The fabled soft landing is not entirely unknown, but it's not very common."
  • "And those outcomes tended to be associated with much more favourable developments on the supply side of economies than we see at the moment."
rba stevens

Glenn Stevens (in the hat).

Info via local media here in Australia.