RBA announces monthly cash rate decision for August 2015
The Reserve Bank of Australia has delivered the result of its August board meeting.
As expected, board members decided to leave the cash rate at a record-low 2 per cent, where it has been since May.
That was the result predicted by all 31 commentators surveyed by comparison website finder.com.au.
Many of the experts felt that it was too early for another rate cut, given that the Reserve Bank lowered the cash rate by 0.25 per cent in February and by the same amount in May.
“Not enough has changed since the last meeting,” said AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver.
“There is not a national housing bubble, but there is one in Sydney and it will start to reverse in 2017. House prices generally are likely to fall (probably only 5-10 per cent) around 2017 when or if interest rates start to rise,” he said.
NAB chief economist Alan Oster told finder.com.au that the Reserve Bank is “waiting to see results of previous actions”, while John Caelli from ME said employment, inflation and growth data are “sufficiently benign” to allow the Reserve Bank time to reflect.
