RBA: Euro Crisis is Serious and Australia Has Reasons to Worry
Major economies need to contribute in resolving the European financial crisis, including Australia, which according to Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens, is set to absorb significant impacts of spillovers from Europe.
While Stevens noted that the domestic situation is far from alarming, he warned that being complacent is dangerous at this time as he underscored that Australia is not immune from the troubles wreaking havoc in Europe.
The RBA chief also noted that time is of the essence at this time as he urged Euro leaders to quickly act on the matter or face dire consequences.
"The issues (in Europe) are pretty serious, and I think we are fast coming to the point where all the parties who have a role to play in getting to the solution really have to hurry up and do it," Stevens said on Thursday.
Failure to do so, he stressed, would mean preparing for major problems to be sparked by the Euro situation and it would help if Australia will do its share of resolving the issue and maybe, consider buffers in the event of a sharp downturn.
As a form of preparation, the RBA, Stevens said, moved to push back the cash rate to 4.5 percent in early November, which would at least put the necessary domestic fundamentals in place once a meltdown occurs.
So far, the RBA governor has expressed satisfaction that the board has adopted and implemented the correct measures that would fit with the current situation, both local and global.
Yet he allowed that only time will tell if the RBA indeed made the right call.
"In my view, these judgements over the past year were right calls ... but in truth we will not know for a while, such are the lags in monetary policy," Stevens asserted.
Right now, Australia may be reaping the benefits of the ongoing mining boom but it does not mean that 2011 was free of any kinks as Stevens admitted that the RBA found its hands full this year implementing efforts to combat the ill-effects of the surging resources industry.
That rise, according to Stevens, created economic headwinds that drove up the Australian dollar value, which in turn dwarfed growth prospects in the manufacturing and tourism sector.
The only saving grace is the country's record trade surplus with China, a partnership that the RBA boss acknowledged provided Australia the cushion to weather the worst of the global financial crisis in 2008.
To date, China's massive industrialisation, and that of other developing countries in the Asia Pacific region, provides huge benefit to the Australian economy as demands for coal and iron ore spur stronger market prices and open up more shipment destinations, Stevens said.