Australia's Reserve Bank has maintained its benchmark interest rate for a sixth straight meeting as signs of slower domestic economic expansion dims with the slowdown in key markets including China.

RBA Governor Glenn Stevens and the monetary board on Wednesday has held the overnight cash rate target at 4.75 percent in Sydney after deliberating this would be the best move for the country with consumers languishing with high retail and mortgage prices.

"In the household sector thus far, there continues to be a degree of caution in spending and borrowing and a higher rate of saving out of current income. The impetus from earlier Australian Government spending programs is now also abating, as had been intended," Mr Stevens said in a statement released today.

This would be the longest period since 2007 since the RBA held off an increase in interest rates as the downward trend in the country's manufacturing and other industry sectors as delivery demand in key markets Japan, India, and China also declined.

"Poor global data have increased the downside risks to the outlook," Roland Randall, an economist at TD Securities Inc. said before the announcement. "These are the risks that the RBA has highlighted previously as tipping the balance towards doing nothing, rather than hiking."

The central bank has also relied on the Australian dollar's strength to tighten monetary conditions. The local currency has risen 31 percent in the past year and reached $1.1012 on May 2, the highest since exchange controls were scrapped in 1983, Bloomberg data showed.

Reprieve for mortgage borrowers

The decision of the Reserve Bank to hold rates at its current rates will be a reprieve for mortgage borrowers and lenders. The real estate lenders would want some change in the slackening demand in the real estate sector of Australia.

The largest property company in Australia - Ray White - is hopeful that the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to leave rates on hold today will have a positive impact on prospective buyers.

Chairman Brian White says speculation of cash rates rising in the next month or two is already influencing the market.

"The perception of interest rate increases has already had a massive impact on the attitude of the community towards property. It's often ignored: the actual impact of prediction on the psyche of potential property owners," Mr White said.

Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) President, Mr David Airey said today's decision on interest rates is the right one given the state of housing affordability in Australia.

"With REIA's Deposit Power Housing Affordability Report for the March quarter 2011 being released tomorrow, the Reserve Bank has accurately assessed the property market and left rates on hold," he said.