, not the date ; it is based on inflation outcomes, not the calendar. the second is that the step - down in the rba's bond purchases from $ 5 billion to $ 4 billion a week does not represent a withdrawal of support by the rba. the evidence is that central bank bond purchases have their impact through the total stock of bonds purchased, not the flow of those purchases. by mid november, our cumulative purchases under the bond purchase program will have amounted to $ 237 billion. we will hold a little more than 30 per cent of australian government bonds https : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2021 / sp - gov - 2021 - 07 - 08. html 16 / 17 on issue and 15 per cent of state and territory bonds. this represents a substantial and ongoing degree of support to the australian economy. the adjustment in the rate of weekly purchases does not change this. let me conclude on that note. thank you for listening. i am happy to answer your questions. endnotes [ * ] i would like to thank mark chambers for assistance in the preparation of this talk. lowe p ( 2021 ), ‘ from recovery to expansion ’, keynote address at the australian farm institute conference, toowoomba, 17 june. bishop j & e greenland ( forthcoming ), ‘ is the phillips curve still a curve? evidence from the regions ’, rba research discussion paper. the materials on this webpage are subject to copyright and their use is subject to the terms and conditions set out in the copyright and disclaimer notice. © reserve bank of australia, 2001 – 2021. all rights reserved. the reserve bank of australia acknowledges the aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples of australia as the traditional custodians of this land, and recognises their continuing connection to country. we pay our respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.

, seems to have stopped rising, and it is at a level a bit lower than we had thought, six months ago, it might reach. of course, this performance is not uniform geographically or by industry. the two large south - eastern states show the largest increases in demand and employment, and dwelling prices, while conditions elsewhere are more subdued. by industry, the rise in employment has been strongest in services, especially those types of services delivered to households, though business services activities have also added to employment over the past year. monetary policy is seeking to support this transition, something it can do because inflation remains low. very low interest rates, coupled with financial institutions wanting to lend, have played a part in the improvement in conditions in some sectors. residential construction is running at very high levels, households are adding a little less of their incomes to savings and savers have been searching for higher returns. these are all indications of easy money at work. cognisant of the risk that very low interest rates may foster a worrying debt build - up, regulatory initiatives are in place to maintain sound lending standards and capital adequacy. i bis central bankers ’ speeches hasten to add that the objective of such tools is not to control dwelling prices, but to contain leverage. the evidence is emerging that they are doing their job. more recently, the significant decline in the exchange rate is starting to have more discernible effects on the pattern of spending and production. the decline over the past two years amounts to about 25 per cent against a rising us dollar and 18 per cent against the trade - weighted basket. we are hearing about the effects of this in our liaison and also seeing it in the data on such things as tourism flows as well as exports of business services. this is to be expected as the exchange rate adjusts to the change in the terms of trade. over the year to june, real gdp grew by 2 per cent. this was in line with our forecast of three months ago and at the lower end of our forecast range from a year ago. the effect of unusual weather conditions on exports meant that gdp as measured exaggerates both the strength in the march quarter and the weakness in the june quarter. there are still some puzzles in reconciling what has happened to real gdp with what has happened to employment and indications from business surveys. hopefully, those puzzles will be resolved over time. nonetheless, what is pretty clear is that the economy is growing, albeit not as fast as we