Westpac reiterate their Reserve Bank of Australia August rate hike forecast

The WPAC leading index info is here:

• the first positive, above trend, read on the Index growth rate since the ‘Delta’ lockdowns impacted in August last year.

From the report, Chief Economist at Westpac Evans:

• This week we saw the Minutes from the February meeting. The Board has continued to emphasise its patient approach to raising rates. We believe that it has progressed from the need to see an annual growth rate of 3%+ in the Wage Price Index before it could feel that the inflation rate can be sustained within the target zone.
• We were also encouraged by the Governor’s observation in his testimony to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics that he would need to see a couple more CPI prints before moving on rates. This supports our view that the August 2 meeting is the likely timing for the first rate increase

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RBA Governor Lowe is next scheduled to speak on February 19 (the topic is Digital Payments, to the G20 meeting in Indonesia – Online)