The Reserve Bank of Australia has decided to leave the official cash rate unchanged at a record low of 2%, but said there was scope for a rate cut down the line.
Comments by RBA Governor Glenn Stevens that monetary policy in the form of lower interest rates may have reached its limits, needs to prompt debate on fiscal policy taking over.
With rates on the way down the problem of runaway property investing has been left to the regulator APRA. But regulators should not be used as agents of short-term government policy.
Though markets had somewhat priced in an Australian interest rate cut yesterday, many analysts and commentators were still left surprised. The rate had not been cut for 18 months. Over that period commentary…
The CAMA RBA Shadow Board is a project by the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, based at the ANU, which asks industry and academic economists what interest rate the Reserve Bank of Australia should…
The CAMA RBA Shadow Board is a project by the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, based at the ANU, which asks industry and academic economists what interest rate the Reserve Bank of Australia should…
The CAMA RBA Shadow Board is a project by the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, based at the ANU, which asks industry and academic economists what interest rate the Reserve Bank of Australia should…
The perennial debate about negative gearing of residential property investments has been reignited yet again, by two reports in the past week. The International Monetary Fund has nominated taxes on housing…
Australia’s central bank has formally flagged the use of macroprudential tools to address what it called “unbalanced” lending in its most recent Financial Stability Review. Loan-to-valuation ratio (LVR…
Last Tuesday the minutes of August’s Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting were released. Market participants speculated about what they would say, currency and bond markets responded to what they did…
One of the major recommendations made by the 1997 Wallis Inquiry into banking was to establish a prudential regulator for the financial sector separate from the Reserve Bank of Australia. The new regulator…
Australia’s cost of living is among the highest in the world, despite our low inflation rate. In this series we explore what consumers can expect from the big ticket items - petrol, power and groceries…
Imagine if we discovered that the monthly setting of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate was rigged. There would quite rightly be outrage. We trust the RBA Board to make these calls, month after…
Kevin Davis, Australian Centre for Financial Studies
There is a growing chorus of support for introduction of a fee for the protection provided to bank deposits (up to the $250,000 cap) by the Financial Claims Scheme (or deposit insurance as it would be…