RBA's Stevens: Higher benchmark rates appropriate soon
Australia's Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens has hinted on further benchmark rate adjustments to soften the impact of inflation rates as the economy will continue to accelerate with the mining industry boom.
In a speech to the Economic Society of Australia in Brisbane today, Mr Stevens outlined the case for "some degree of restraint" as a result of the mining boom and the strongest business investment cycle in a generation.
Mr Stevens said that the economy is recovering, although, at a much slower pace after the natural disasters that hampered the production on iron ore mines and vast agricultural lands in Queensland, Brisbane and other affected territories,
"Information on coal mining suggests that it is gradually recovering, though more slowly than had been expected initially owing to the difficulties of getting water out of the pits. Iron ore production has fully recovered. The banana plants are re-generating. Most other crops are also getting back to normal supply levels. As this occurs, we should see the impact of these events on prices start to reverse," he said.
While this is happening, the RBA is prepared to place the necessary macroeconomic policies that will likely meet the inflation targets placed within the 2 to 3 percent in the medium term.
"(I)t follows that the macroeconomic policies must be configured in the expectation that there will need to be some degree of restraint," Mr Stevens said.
"Monetary policy has already been exercising some restraint for a while. Looking ahead, our most recent analysis concluded that the underlying rate of inflation is more likely to rise than fall over the next couple of years."
"It remains though a matter of judgement by the board as to whether that point has been reached," Mr Stevens said adding that "at its most recent meeting the board's view was that it had not been."
"New information will as always be important in our monthly assessments of what monetary policy needs to do."
Analysts and economists have believed there is a prospect the RBA could raise the official cash rate from 4.75 percent to 5 percent at the August meeting -- just days after the June quarter CPI result is released.