Highlights
The Reserve Bank of Australia has published the minutes of its February 3rd meeting. Officials at that meeting increased their main policy rate, the cash rate, by 25 basis points from 3.60 percent to 3.85 percent.
Consistent with the statement accompanying the decision, the minutes note that officials were concerned about recent strength in headline inflation, which has now been above the target range of two percent to three percent for five consecutive months. Inflation, they judged, was"currently too high" and"represented the crystallisation of what had been a growing risk". This prompted officials to revise up their inflation forecasts.
Reflecting these considerations, officials concluded that a immediate rate increase was warranted at this meeting. They also advised that"the prevailing uncertainties meant it was not possible to have a high degree of confidence in any particular path for the cash rate". They promised, however, to do what they consider necessary to return inflation to its target range, indicating that further rate increases will likely be considered in upcoming meetings.
Definition
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) publishes minutes of its meetings with a two week lag. The text expands on the statement published two weeks earlier at the time of the announcement.
Description
Although the RBA's Reserve Bank Board issues a detailed statement at the conclusion of its monthly meetings, investors also look to the minutes for a more detailed description of current economic outlook both domestically and abroad along with the latest RBB policy thinking.
It is only recently that the RBA has released meeting minutes. At the conclusion of their December 2007 meeting, the RBA announced several changes to its communications policy. Previously, a statement was released only if a policy change was made. Now a statement is released at the conclusion of every meeting. Another change concerned the timing of the policy announcement. Rather than waiting until the next day, the announcement occurs immediately after the conclusion of the meeting. In addition, minutes are now released two weeks after the meeting.