The Reserve Bank of Australia kept its monetary policy and current interest rates at 0.10% unchanged at the Bank’s meeting held this morning, Tuesday, the first of March, as expected.
The bank’s interest statement said that the global economy continues to recover from the pandemic, but the war in Ukraine has become a major new source of uncertainty as energy prices have risen again and many commodity prices are due to it.
The Australian economy is still resilient after Omicron and the balance sheets of households and businesses are in good shape as unemployment rates fell to a 14-year low of 4.2% and the Bank expects it to fall below 4% in the coming period.
Inflation rebounded more quickly than expectations, but it is still less than it is in many other countries. The bank’s expectations are for inflation to rise to about 3% in the coming quarters before falling back to about 2% in the next year 2023 with the solution of supply problems and the return of consumption patterns to normal .
The bank affirmed its commitment to maintain a supportive monetary policy to achieve the goals of employment and inflation, and that the bank will not raise interest rates until the actual inflation becomes sustainably within the target range between 2-3%.