core services inflation six - month annualised % united states % euro area sources : bls ; rba ; refinitiv. this persistence in services price inflation reflects the strong demand for many services and strong growth in wages, against the background of weak productivity growth. one source of ongoing uncertainty is how quickly services price inflation globally will moderate and whether the needed moderation will require further increases in interest rates. it is noteworthy that interest rates are higher in the other english - speaking advanced economies than in australia and are expected to go a little higher still. the other significant source of uncertainty for the global economy is the strength of the economic recovery in china. the economic indicators for china were weak in april, after a strong initial bounce - back following the easing of the covid restrictions late last year ( graph 9 ). and consistent with an economy operating with a fair degree of spare capacity, inflation in china is much lower than in the rest of the world. this has implications for australia, not just in terms of the prices of goods in world markets but also for the prices of our resource exports, which have declined of late. graph 9 china – economic indicators * index retail sales december 2019 = 100 index % % headline inflation year - ended - 2 * - 2 seasonally adjusted by the rba. sources : ceic data ; rba. household spending the second consideration is the strength of household spending domestically. in aggregate, growth of household spending has slowed since mid - 2022 as the post - pandemic spending bounce faded and both higher interest rates and the cost - of - living pressures began to bite. we expect that consumption growth will remain subdued for some time for these same reasons, although stronger population growth will provide some offset to this. there is, however, ongoing uncertainty about the outlook for consumption given the large number of factors influencing household finances and spending. employment has been rising strongly, people have been getting more hours of work and nominal income growth has been strong ( graph 10 ). these are all positives. in addition, the headwind for household spending from falling housing prices looks to be coming to an end and could be replaced with a tailwind from increasing housing prices. on the other hand, real incomes have declined and required mortgage payments as a share of household disposable income will reach a record high later this year. many households will transition from low fixed - rate loans over the next few months and experience the increase in repayments that has been occurring for variable -

and storing banknotes nationally for many years to come. the new facility is built around a very large vault and as you can imagine, it is highly secure. it also uses the latest technology and is our first major investment in banknote storage and distribution for decades. as i hope you are aware, we are currently in the process of upgrading our banknotes to stay ahead of counterfeiters. counterfeiting rates in australia remain pretty low but they are creeping up. the new $ 5 note came out in september last year and the public reaction has been favourable. we are proud of these new notes, not just of the design but also of the high - tech security features. the new $ 10 will be issued from september and the $ 50 next year. as you can imagine, issuing a new series of banknotes is a huge logistical exercise. there are currently 1. 5 billion individual banknotes on issue. that averages 62 per person in australia. we also hold large contingency stocks, which we needed during the financial crisis when the demand for banknotes surged. it might come as a surprise to you to learn that, despite all the talk of a cashless society and electronic payments, the value of banknotes on issue in australia, relative to gdp, is the highest that it has been in 50 years. australians have come to rely on our secure and high - quality banknotes. our new state of the art facility at craigieburn will help us manage the storage and distribution of these notes. thank you and enjoy your dinner and conversation. 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches