Reserve Bank of Australia leaves the cash rate unchanged at 4.35%, as expected

<p>Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)</p><p>Headlines via Reuters:</p><ul><li>Whether further tightening of monetary policy is required to ensure
that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe will
depend upon the data and the evolving assessment of risks</li><li>Board remains
resolute in its determination to return inflation to target</li><li>The limited
information received on the domestic economy since the November
meeting has been broadly in line with expectations</li><li>Outlook for
household consumption also remains uncertain</li><li>The monthly CPI
indicator for October suggested that inflation is continuing to
moderate, driven by the goods sector; the inflation update did not,
however, provide much more information on services inflation.</li><li>Measures of
inflation expectations remain consistent with the inflation target</li><li>Conditions in the
labour market also continued to ease gradually, although they remain
tight.</li><li>Domestically, there
are uncertainties regarding the lags in the effect of monetary
policy</li><li>Higher interest
rates are working to establish a more sustainable balance between
aggregate supply and demand in the economy.</li><li>Holding the cash
rate steady at this meeting will allow time to assess the impact of
the increases in interest rates on demand, inflation and the labour
market.</li></ul><p>Bolding is mine. The statement explicitly nodding to data-dependence. </p><p>This is a reasonably neutral sort of statement from the Governor, even leaning a little dovish. Bullock has been more aggressively hawkish in her public comments leading up to this meeting. A dissonant statement this. </p><p>Full text:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2023/mr-23-35.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Statement by Michele Bullock, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision
</a></li></ul><p>The next official quarterly inflation data is due on January 31 2024, with the next RBA meeting following closely behind on February 5 and 6.</p>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.