- Australia's chief central banker was laughed at by other global bankers in Switzerland when he revealed how he has to wait three months for inflation data.
- Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe expressed his dissatisfaction with Australia's official consumer price index data collection during a conference in Zurich, sponsored by Swiss bank UBS. 'The other thing that's different - and this is a bad difference – is our CPI is only available quarterly,' Dr Lowe said.
It sounds to me like the laughs were because of the data only coming once a quarter, not at Lowe. Other developed nations (well, most of them) get inflation data monthly. Australia gets it once every three months. If Lowe was using the frequency of the data as an excuse for the performance of the RBA then maybe the laughs would be justified though.
As an example. Back at the beginning of 2021 Lowe forecast there would be no rate hikes in Australia until 2024 at the earliest. He pretty much stuck to this forecast right up until he hiked the cash rate in May of 2022. Not good.
One excuse I have heard is that he changed his mind as circumstances changed. Yeah, but that's not the point. RBA forecasts have been off the mark for many, many years. Stop making forecasts like this when ALL of them are wrong. A drover's dog could have seen through the silly 2024 forecast:
