PHOTO: Reserve Bank won’t hike interest rates massively as it’d make housing market ‘fall over’
The Official Cash Rate is unchanged at 0.25 percent, the Reserve Bank confirms.
In a monetary policy review on Wednesday, the central bank confirmed it is however, reducing the level of its current policy settings. From July 23, it will stop buying bonds under the Large Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) programme, introduced in March 2020.
Effectively injecting cash into the economy to help reduce business and household borrowing costs, the programme has been nicknamed ‘money printing’.
The Funding for Lending programme, a low-cost source of funding available to banks, will remain unchanged.
The Official Cash Rate is still at a record low 0.25 percent. But the Reserve Bank acknowledges the economy continues to perform better than expected coming through COVID-19.
“Aggregate economic activity is above its pre-COVID-19 level. Household spending and construction activity are at high levels and continue to grow,” the statement said.
It expects inflation to rise in the June and September quarters.
“These reflect factors that are either one-off in nature, such as high oil prices, or expected to be temporary in duration, such as supply shortfalls and higher transport costs,” the Reserve Bank said.
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