The Reserve Bank of Australia kept its monetary policy unchanged at its meeting on Tuesday morning, the third of August (August) unchanged and kept interest rates at the current levels of 0.10%, and the bank maintained its purchases of government bonds equivalent to five billion Australian dollars until the beginning of next September and reduced them to Four billion a week until at least mid-November.
The minutes of the meeting showed that the Australian economy was negatively affected by the recent outbreak of the virus, after it had begun to recover. Accordingly, the bank expects GDP growth to decline in the third quarter of this year ending in September, and the bank expects the economy to grow by more than 4% next year. 2022 and by about 2.5% in the year 2023, unemployment rates fell to 4.9% in June, but it is expected that some rises will be recorded in the near term due to the current closures, and it is expected to decline to 4.5% at the end of next year and to 4% in the year 2023.
Inflation rates rose to 3.8% throughout the year until the second quarter due to price hikes due to the impact of the Corona virus, but it is expected to stabilize at low levels close to 1.75% during the next year and at 2.25% in the year 2023.
The bank confirmed that it is committed to its approach with regard to bond purchases and low interest levels until the level of full employment and the stability of inflation rates within the target range of 2-3% are achieved in a sustainable manner.
The Australian dollar reacted positively to the statement issued by the bank, bringing the Australian dollar up against the US dollar by about 40 points, as the markets were expecting the bank to postpone its plan to ease its asset purchases program due to the closure in some Australian cities, but the bank kept its plan, which will start in early September.
The Australian dollar is trading at 0.7404 levels against the US dollar, after testing 0.7412 levels in the Asian session.