At its Nov. 4 meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia eased “monetary policy quickly to a neutral position,” for a total of three rate cuts over the course of the previous nine weeks. During that period the bank slashed the overnight cash rate by 175bp to 5.25%.
The latest RBA move, however, was followed by concerns that such action “could pose risks to inflationary expectations.” Despite such concerns the overall sentiment expressed was that the Australian inflation rate would soon start to fall.
“Given the balance of risks, there was an advantage in moving the setting of monetary policy to a neutral position,” said today’s release. With that, the bank could halt its rate cutting campaign. As of now, it is expected that the bank will cut rates by an additional 50bp to 4.75% at it's Dec 2 meeting.
AUDUSD traded through 0.6448 at 19:48EST.
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