Australia’s central bank kept its benchmark rates steady on Tuesday, saying it required more time to assess the impact of past rate hikes to the economy before making the next move, but also warned that further tightening might be needed to bring inflation down.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) maintained its interest rates at an 11-year high of 4.10% in the policy meeting in July after raising 400 basis points of its benchmark rates since May last year as the country was facing a high inflation rate.
However, the central bank noted that further hikes might be required as inflation is still too high and will remain so for some time yet.
Headline inflation in Australia is running at 7% in the first quarter of this year, while recording at 5.6% in May, which was still higher than the central bank’s target range of 2-3%. It is forecast that inflation would come down to the target range by mid-2025.
