CANBERRA, AAP – Economists will be scouring the minutes of the Reserve Bank board’s most recent meeting for hints on whether interest rates could rise soon.
The minutes of the RBA board’s April monetary policy meeting will be released at 11.30am.
NAB’s Tapas Strickland said the minutes would be scrutinised for any hints on whether the RBA could contemplate starting its hiking cycle as early as May.
“Guidance from the post-meeting statement hinted rate hikes from June with the board waiting for ‘important additional evidence … on both inflation and the evolution of labour costs’,” he said.
The latest inflation data will be released on April 27.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Fremantle on Monday cost of living pressures were “real”, but were having a far greater impact in other countries than Australia.
“The Reserve Bank of Australia sets independently the cash rate in this country,” he told reporters when asked whether he thought the cash rate would go above one per cent.
“A strong economy that is backed in by a well-managed budget, that’s what puts downward pressure on interest rates.”
The last rise in the cash rate was in November 2010.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release household spending figures on Tuesday.
