At its meeting today, the Board decided to increase the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.10 per cent. It also increased the interest rate paid on Exchange Settlement balances by 25 basis points to 4.00 per cent. Inflation in Australia has passed its peak, but at 7 per cent is still too high and it will be some time yet before it is back in the target range. This further increase in interest rates is to provide greater confidence that inflation will return to target within a reasonable timeframe. High inflation makes life difficult for people and damages the functioning of the economy. It erodes the value of savings, hurts family budgets, makes it harder for businesses to plan and invest, and worsens income inequality. And if high inflation were to become entrenched in people’s expectations, it would be very costly to reduce later, involving even higher interest rates and a larger rise in unemployment. Recent data indicate that the upside risks to the inflation outlook have increased and the Board has responded to this. While goods price inflation is slowing, services price inflation is still very high and is proving to be very persistent overseas. Unit labour costs are also rising briskly, with productivity growth remaining subdued. Growth in the Australian economy has slowed and conditions in the labour market have eased, although they remain very tight. The unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.7 per cent in April and employment growth has moderated. Firms report that labour shortages have eased, although job vacancies and advertisements are still at very high levels. Wages growth has picked up in response to the tight labour market and high inflation. Growth in public sector wages is expected to pick up further and the annual increase in award wages was higher than it was last year. At the aggregate level, wages growth is still consistent with the inflation target, provided that productivity growth picks up. The Board remains alert to the risk that expectations of ongoing high inflation contribute to larger increases in both prices and wages, especially given the limited spare capacity in the economy and the still very low rate of unemployment. Accordingly, it will tweet at 12:31am: RBA: HIGHER INTEREST RATES AND COST-OF-LIVING PRESSURES IS LEADING TO A SUBSTANTIAL SLOWING IN HOUSEHOLD SPENDING #News #Markets #RBA #capitalhungry tweet at 12:33am: RBA: BOARD REMAINS ALERT TO THE RISK THAT EXPECTATIONS OF ONGOING HIGH INFLATION CONTRIBUTE TO LARGER INCREASES IN BOTH PRICES AND WAGES tweet at 12:36am: RBA: Some Further Tightening Of Monetary Policy May Be Required - Inflation Has Passed Peak, Is Still Too High - More Tightening Depends On How Inflation, Economy Evolve - Hike Is To Provide Confidence CPI Will Return To TargetAUD/USD jumps towards 0.6700 as RBA again surprises with 0.25% rate hike, Governor Lowe’s speech eyed AUD/USD gains near 50 basis points (bps) on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) second surprise rate hike during early Tuesday. That said, the Aussie pair initially jumped to 0.6673 on the RBA’s verdict before retreating to 0.6668 by the press time. That said, RBA defies market forecasts of announcing no change to its benchmark interest rate by fueling the key rate to 4.10% at the latest. It’s worth noting that the Australian central bank surprised markets in the previous monetary policy meeting with a 0.25% rate increase and hence some traders on the floor expected such a move ahead of the Interest Rate Decision. As a result, early Wednesday’s speeches from RBA Governor Philip Lowe and Deputy Governor Michele Bullock will be the key to gaining any hints for future rate hikes from the Aussie central bank. The same, if offered, can propel AUD/USD prices. Elsewhere, Australia’s first quarter (Q1) Current Account Balance flashed better-than-expected figures while the market sentiment remains dicey amid lackluster US stock futures and inactive Treasury bond yields. While tracing the catalysts for the currently mixed mood, lack of uniform concerns about the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) rate hike and the diplomatic ties between the US and China seem to gain major attention. That said, headlines suggest the Sino-American talks are going smoothly but the Taiwan tension keeps poking the optimists. On the other hand, softer US data and previous Fed talks push traders to anticipate nearness to the policy pivot. However, the comments from International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva hint at more rate hikes from the US central bank and challenge the US Dollar sellers. Furthermore, the US debt-ceiling deal passage and looming fears about the banking sector adds strength to the down

Chinese authorities asked the nation’s biggest banks to lower their deposit rates for at least the second time in less than a year, according to people familiar with the matter, ...

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) will continue QQE until the achievement of the inflation target," the central bank Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Tuesday. Additional quotes Inflation ...