Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Reserve Bank of Australia leaves rates unchanged

The Reserve Bank of Australia has left official interest rates unchanged at 5.75 per cent.
The central bank lifted interest rates by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent last month.
Economists were unanimous in their expectation that interest rates would not be changed following the RBA's board meeting yesterday.
Commsec chief equities economist Craig James said rates were rising around the world.
He said the Reserve Bank would continue to look for any inflation signals in the domestic economy.
"They'll be looking at growth overall in the economy, wages pressures particularly. If wages are starting to creep up that may lead businesses to pass that through in terms of higher prices," he told Sky News.
"The rising price of crude oil puts upward pressure on the headline rate of inflation, and if that starts to get passed through to generalised price measures, then again the Reserve Bank is concerned."
Economists and the Federal Government will now turn their attention to the March national account figures due out today.
Analysts are tipping a quarterly increase of around 0.7 per cent, which would give Australia annual GDP growth of 2.7 per cent.
Macquarie Bank economist Daniel McCormack said it was too soon to expect another rate hike from the central bank.
"The RBA would like to sit back and assess the impact of the May hike before they decide whether another move is necessary," he said.
There has been no post-hike data yet released so the bank is is wait-and-see mode, he said.
However, Mr McCormack said markets are pricing in a chance of another move over the second half of this year.
"We expect the earliest window for a move is August after the next CPI [inflation] release in late July but we don't expect any move before then," he said.
Westpac senior economist Anthony Thompson said the decision was no surprise.
"The market was unanimous in expecting the rates would be left on hold after the surprise move in May," he said.
"We think clearly the bank will want to give some time to see the full effect of the May increase before contemplating their future direction."
Westpac expects interest rates will be left on hold for the rest of the year.
Source: AAP