CANBERRA, June 7 Asia Pulse - Interest rates are expected to remain on hold when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) holds its first board meeting since the federal budget.
Financial markets see just a little over a 10 per cent chance of a rise in the official cash rate at the central bank's monthly board meeting on Tuesday, to 5.0 per cent from 4.75 per cent, where it has stood since November 2010.
The central bank has previously warned the cash rate will have to rise "at some point" because of potential inflation pressures from a record terms of trade and a massive business investment pipeline as a result of the mining boom.
Economists say the central bank would have been prepared for a weak gross domestic product (GDP) number for the March quarter in the wake of this summer's natural disasters, but not as bad as it came in.
Last Wednesday, national accounts for the first three months of the year showed the economy shrank by 1.2 per cent, the largest quarterly decline in 20 years.
At the same time, more up-to-date economic data suggests the economy is far from firing on all cylinders and price pressures in the economy have yet to take hold.
New data on Monday showed the number of job advertisements, a key pointer to future employment growth, tumbled 6.5 per cent in May.
Newspaper job ads fell by 2.7 per cent in May, while internet job ads dropped 6.6 per cent.
The TD Securities-Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge also showed prices grew by just 0.2 per cent in May, trimming the annual rate to 3.3 per cent from 3.6 per cent in April, albeit remaining above the RBA's two to three per cent target band.
(AAP) ms 07-06 1009
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий