likely to be very large increases in the prices that households pay for gas and electricity. to control inflation, the board has already increased interest rates substantially. we moved in large half percentage point increments for four months, but at this and the previous meeting, we returned to more standard quarter percentage point increases. the earlier large increases were required to move interest rates quickly away from their pandemic levels to address the rapidly emerging inflation problem. but as interest rates moved back to more normal levels, the board judged that it is appropriate to move at a slower pace while we assessed the data, the economic outlook and the impact of the rate rises to date. we are conscious that interest rates have been increased by a large amount in a very short period of time and that higher interest rates affect the economy with a lag. if we are to stay on that narrow path, we need to strike the right balance between doing too much and too little. the board's base case remains that interest rates will need to go higher still to bring inflation back to target and our forecasts have been prepared on that basis. we are not on a pre - set path, though. if we need to step up to larger increases again to secure the return of inflation to target, we will do that. similarly, if the situation requires us to hold steady for a while, we will do that. given the uncertainties regarding the outlook, we will be watching very carefully how the economy and the inflation pressures evolve over the summer. finally, while it is interest rates that keep the reserve bank in the news, i hope that you know that we do a lot more than just set interest rates. we are the banker to the australian government, so we process all social security payments, tax payments and medicare refunds. we also operate the core of australia's payments system. when you send money from your bank to another bank it goes through the reserve bank. we also operate a central part of australia's 24 / 7 real - time payments system. i hope that you all have a payid, so that you can take best advantage of this technology. if you don't have one, i encourage you to go get one. 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches we also print australia's banknotes. it comes as a surprise to many people just how many banknotes are in circulation. the total value of notes on issue is over $ 100 billion a€ “ that's around $

philip lowe : remarks at the reserve bank board dinner remarks by mr philip lowe, governor of the reserve bank of australia, at the reserve bank board dinner, hobart, 1 november 2022. * * * good evening. on behalf of the reserve bank board, i would like to warmly welcome you to this community dinner. this is the first time the board has met outside sydney since october 2019. we are delighted that we are able to do so in this beautiful and historic city of hobart. it's a great pleasure to be back here. thank you very much for joining us this evening. earlier today, the board held its meeting in the cabinet meeting room here in hobart. i would like to thank the premier very much for his hospitality. your cabinet room was an ideal place for the board to discuss the state of the australian and global economies and decide upon the level of interest rates in australia. as you are probably aware by now, the board decided to increase the cash rate by a further one - quarter of a percentage point to 2. 85 per cent. i will talk about the reasons for this in a moment. the previous time that the reserve bank board met in hobart was back in april 2016. the economy was in a very different position then from where it is today. inflation was below target and surprising on the downside, wages growth was very slow, the unemployment rate was close to 6 per cent and interest rates were trending lower, with the cash rate then at 2 per cent. the global economy was growing a bit slowly, but it was broadly okay. how much things can change in just a few short years. a couple of weeks ago, i was in washington dc with the australian treasurer at the g20 and imf meetings. it was a sobering experience. we heard that : inflation globally is way too high ; the rising cost of living is hurting many households ; the world is falling behind on the agreed carbon reduction targets ; war is once again tragically occurring in europe ; and the global economy is becoming more fragmented. as you can imagine, there was not much cheer around, even for somebody like myself who sees the glass as half full. i recount this, though, for a couple of reasons. the first is as a reminder of how difficult the global backdrop is at present. there is no escaping the fact that we are living through a challenging period. it's true that the choices that we make here in australia during this period will help shape our