Highlights
The Reserve Bank of Australia has published the minutes of its September 29th meeting. Officials at that meeting increased their main policy rate, the cash rate, by 25 basis points from 4.35 percent to 4.60 percent.
Consistent with the statement accompanying the decision, the minutes noted that some of concerns officials had about the upside risks to inflation"had materialised" and stressed that inflation"remained too high" despite recent declines. They also stressed that growth in aggregate demand needs to remain subdued to reduce capacity pressures and bring inflation back to target
Reflecting these considerations, members deliberated between no change in policy rates and an increase of 25 basis points, but all concluded that policy tightening was warranted at that stage. Officials again stressed that they will do what they consider necessary to deliver price stability and full employment, implying that they are ready to increase rates again if inflationary pressures do not start to moderate soon.
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.