Goodbye Philip Lowe, RBA Decides Interest Rate Hold

<p>&nbsp;The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to keep interest rates unchanged at 4.10% as expected by the market.</p><p><br /></p><p>The outgoing RBA governor, Philip Lowe, presented his final monetary policy statement.</p><p><br /></p><p>The following are the main details taken from the meeting.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The RBA is still firm with its position to return inflation to the target.</p><p>Higher interest rates seek to create a more sustainable balance between supply and demand in the economy.</p><p>Inflation is down, the labor market remains strong and the economy is operating at a high level of capacity utilization.</p><p>The 'Pause' will provide more time to assess the impact of interest rate hikes so far and the economic outlook.</p><p>Inflation is still too high and will remain so for some time to come.</p><p>There is increasing uncertainty around China's economic outlook.</p><p>Prices in most services are increasing rapidly, rent inflation is also increasing.</p><p>The outlook for household consumption remains a key factor in uncertainty.</p><p>Based on the RBA's follow-up statement, it can be seen that the central bank is trying to give time to see the impact of interest rate hikes on the current economy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Following the decision, the initial reaction showed the Aussie dollar falling to around 0.6388 against the US dollar, in addition to being pressured by the uncertainty of sentiment from China.</p>