The best way to manage the economy is though an array of tools. Interest rates are just one.
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Articles on Reserve Bank of Australia
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Inflation is well outside the Reserve Bank’s target band and higher than it has been for two decades.
Of the news on prices, wages, interest rates and unemployment, only the unemployment update looks set to be positive for the Coalition.
While everyone’s talking about Anthony Albanese’s campaign stumble, the more extraordinary thing is that unemployment is actually set to fall below 4%. A 60-year low of 3% is now within sight.
Do you have what it takes to be Australia’s number two central banker and heir apparent to the governor? Here are the questions you’ll need to prepare to answer.
Australia’s GDP was up 3.4% last quarter of 2021, on the back of pent-up consumer spending. Other factors must drive future growth.
Unemployment is far lower than predicted and isn’t setting off the kind of inflation seen in the United States. There’s no telling how much lower it can go.
There’s no reason why Australian lenders couldn’t offer 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, as they do in the US. It could save borrowers thousands of dollars in interest a year.
The Morrison government could get unemployment down to levels not seen since the 1970s.
The case for the RBA increasing interest rates certainly exists. But it’s far less pressing than in the United States.
Australia’s Consumer Price Index rose 1.3% in the three months to December, bringing inflation for the 2021 year to 3.5%.
Brainard has been pushing the Fed to consider exposure to climate change in its regulation and analysis of banks. That’s sparked fury from Republican senators – and even a Nobel Prize winner.
Outside of a few superstar firms investing heavily in artificial intelligence, investment by Australian businesses has been shrinking for a decade and isn’t set to bounce back.
The 55 leading economists surveyed by the Economic Society see few signs of Australia aping the US, where inflation has surged to its highest level in 30 years.
In its quarterly statement on the economy the Bank is at pains to suggest it won’t be lifting interest rates quickly.
Sub-2% mortgages are a thing of the past. The Reserve Bank’s governor has signalled variable rates will rise sooner than previously expected, but says he doesn’t expect it in 2022.
The Reserve Bank’s Term Funding Facility was meant to support lending during COVID. Instead the funds might be ending up in the accounts of bank shareholders.
Australia faces economic problems down the road if three big, structural reform areas — housing affordability, the tax mix, and decarbonisation — are not addressed.
The unemployment decline isn’t as impressive as it first appears, and wages growth remains sluggish.
The independence of Australia’s central bank doesn’t make it infallible. It should welcome peer review.
Top contributors
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Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
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Professor of Economics, UNSW Sydney
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Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra
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Lecturer in Economics, Monash University
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Professor, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
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Senior Lecturer, Research School of Economics, and Research Associate, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Australian National University
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Visiting Fellow, Macquarie University Applied Finance Centre, Macquarie University
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Associate Professor, School of Economics, University of Sydney
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Professor of Economics and Finance, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania
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Professor of Institutional Economics, RMIT University
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Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Tasmania
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Economist and Director, Centre for Future Work, Australia Institute; Honorary Professor of Political Economy, University of Sydney
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Higher Education Consultant, Monash University
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Honorary Professor of Economics, UCL
