Statement by Philip Lowe, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision - August 2018 | Media Releases | RBA
Central bank: rba | Type: statement | Date: 2018-08-07

Media Release
Statement by Philip Lowe, Governor:
Monetary Policy Decision
7 August 2018
At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.50 per cent.
The global economic expansion is continuing. A number of advanced economies are growing
at an above-trend rate and unemployment rates are low. Growth in China has slowed a
little, with the authorities easing policy while continuing to pay close attention to
the risks in the financial sector. Globally, inflation remains low, although it has
increased in some economies and further increases are expected given the tight labour
markets. One uncertainty regarding the global outlook stems from the direction of
international trade policy in the United States.
Financial conditions remain expansionary, although they are gradually becoming less so
in some countries. There has been a broad-based appreciation of the US dollar over
recent months. In Australia, money-market interest rates are higher than they were at
the start of the year, although they have declined somewhat since the end of June. These
higher money-market rates have not fed through into higher interest rates on retail
deposits. Some lenders have increased mortgage rates by small amounts, although the
average mortgage rate paid is lower than a year ago.
The Bank's central forecast for the Australian economy remains unchanged. GDP growth
is expected to average a bit above 3 per cent in 2018 and 2019. This should
see some further reduction in spare capacity. Business conditions are positive and
non-mining business investment is continuing to increase. Higher levels of public
infrastructure investment are also supporting the economy, as is growth in resource
exports. One continuing source of uncertainty is the outlook for household consumption.
Household income has been growing slowly and debt levels are high. The drought has led
to difficult conditions in parts of the farm sector.
Australia's terms of trade have increased over the past couple of years due to rises
in some commodity prices. While the terms of trade are expected to decline over time,
they are likely to stay at a relatively high level. The Australian dollar remains within
the range that it has been in over the past two years.
The outlook for the labour market remains positive. The vacancy rate is high and other
forward-looking indicators continue to point to solid growth in employment. Employment
growth continues to be faster than growth in the working-age population. A further
gradual decline in the unemployment rate is expected over the next couple of years to
around 5 per cent. Wages growth remains low. This is likely to continue for a
while yet, although the improvement in the economy should see some lift in wages growth
over time. Consistent with this, the rate of wages growth appears to have troughed and
there are increased reports of skills shortages in some areas.
The latest inflation data were in line with the Bank's expectations. Over the past
year, the CPI increased by 2.1 per cent, and in underlying terms, inflation
was close to 2 per cent. The central forecast is for inflation to be higher in
2019 and 2020 than it is currently. In the interim, once-off declines in some
administered prices in the September quarter are expected to result in headline
inflation in 2018 being a little lower than earlier expected, at 1¾ per cent.
Conditions in the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets have continued to ease and
nationwide measures of rent inflation remain low. Housing credit growth has declined to
an annual rate of 5½ per cent. This is largely due to reduced demand by
investors as the dynamics of the housing market have changed. Lending standards are also
tighter than they were a few years ago, partly reflecting APRA's earlier supervisory
measures to help contain the build-up of risk in household balance sheets. There is
competition for borrowers of high credit quality.
The low level of interest rates is continuing to support the Australian economy. Further
progress in reducing unemployment and having inflation return to target is expected,
although this progress is likely to be gradual. Taking account of the available
information, the Board judged that holding the stance of monetary policy unchanged at
this meeting would be consistent with sustainable growth in the economy and achieving
the inflation target over time.
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