Housing Industry Association , the voice of Australia’s residential
building industry observes that the RBA has not changed interest rates for the 13th
consecutive month.
According to HIA Senior Economist, Shane Garrett, the RBA has indicated
its preference for no change on repeated occasions over the past few months;
the decision to leave the Official Cash Rate at 2.5 per cent will therefore not
be a surprise to market watchers.
Shane Garrett pointed out that the RBA has, in its public
pronouncements, taken every possible opportunity to bed down the expectation
that interest rates are set to stay this low for some time.
In context of the poor consumer reaction to May’s Federal Budget along
with a stressed global economy, Shane Garrett believes the policy of stable and
very low interest rates maintained by the RBA is the correct one.
He explains that this policy of low interest rates has breathed life
into sectors of the economy that had previously been on the ropes. He added
that the current climate of low rates offers the strongest hope that
residential construction can continue to put the economy back on tracks.
