Australia holds key rate as sliding currency stimulates growth

Bloomberg

Australia kept interest rates at a record low on Tuesday, as it has for the past two years, while a currency sliding towards 70 US cents offers the prospect of additional stimulus for the economy.
As expected, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe left the cash rate at 1.5 percent, a stance he expects will eventually tighten the labour market and spur enough wage growth to speed up inflation. While the Aussie dollar’s more than 10 percent drop since February may help quicken that process, there’s a risk that rising mortgage rates and falling property prices could encourage households to put away their wallets.
“One continuing source of uncertainty is the outlook for household consumption,” Lowe said in a statement after the decision. “Household income has been growing slowly and debt levels are high.”
On the exchange rate, the governor noted “it has depreciated against the US dollar along with most other currencies.”
“The RBA retained its outlook for growth and inflation, shrugging off heightened trade tensions between the US and China and a sharp slide in the Aussie dollar. Importantly, the central bank still expects the pick up in wage growth to be a gradual process. We think the RBA will remain on hold through most, if not all, of next year,” says Tamara Mast Henderson, Bloomberg Economics.
The RBA has said its next rate move is more likely to be up than down; the governor, since taking the helm in September 2016, has been reluctant to cut further given the diminishing returns from easier policy.
Yet the RBA’s stimulus was eroded somewhat when Westpac Banking Corp said it was hiking its key mortgage rate by 14 basis points, more than half a typical RBA increase, to compensate for higher offshore funding costs.
That prompted traders to push out their bets for the central bank’s first rate hike since 2010 and drive down the currency. Many analysts now see the Aussie dropping into the 60s, potentially boosting the competitiveness of exporters and import-competing industries and allowing them to take on more staff.