AU RBA Gov Bullock Speaks

I would like to start by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we are meeting this evening and pay my respects to Elders, past and present. Thank you to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) for the opportunity to be here tonight. We share an important mission: promoting economic stability and prosperity in Australia. And we also share objectives around economic research and analysis. Groups like CEDA play a crucial role in uniting various sectors of our economy and community to engage in meaningful discussions and debates about the economic challenges facing Australian households and businesses. We live in an increasingly complex world, with cost-of-living pressures persisting, technological change accelerating, ongoing conflicts in several zones around the world, and an ever-changing geopolitical landscape. In the face of these numerous global and domestic uncertainties, both our organisations are confronted with significant challenges. Fundamentally, however, the RBA’s role and focus has not changed, and we are ready to meet these challenges head-on. Toni post: RBA Gov Bullock: Underlying Inflation Still Too High To Consider Near-Term Rate Cut - Policy Will Need To Remain Restrictive Until Confident On Inflation - Our Forecasts Suggest A Sustainable Return To Target Will Occur In 2026

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post: RBA GOVERNOR BULLOCK: IT IS PREMATURE TO ASSESS IMPACT OF US ELECTION OUTCOME post: RBA GOVERNOR BULLOCK: IMPLICATIONS FOR INFLATION DIFFICULT TO ASSESS post: RBA GOVERNOR BULLOCK: RECENT CHINESE POLICY RESPONSE POSITIVE FOR AUSTRALIA post: RBA GOVERNOR BULLOCK: DOMESTIC INFLATION OUTLOOK REMAINS UNCHANGED

I am very pleased to be here at the Anika Foundation fundraising luncheon. It is a tradition for the Governor of the Reserve Bank to give this annual address and I am very happy to continue it. As you know, the Foundation supports research into adolescent depression and suicide, a widespread issue and I suspect one that many of us in this room have been touched by. I am therefore very pleased to be speaking at an event in support of such an important cause. The monetary policy environment I want to start by explaining the Board’s ...

Good morning chair and members of the Committee. These hearings are an important part of the accountability process for the Reserve Bank and my colleagues and I are pleased to be here to answer your questions. I will start with a discussion of the inflation situation and the economic outlook. I will finish with an update on our priorities in the payments space and the cash distribution issues that the industry is dealing with. Inflation The Reserve Bank Board’s mandate is to contribute to the welfare of the Australian people by delivering price stability and full employment. This mandate is set out in the Reserve Bank Act 1959. The Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy, agreed between the Australian Government and the Board, sets out how this works in practice. Specifically, we have agreed with the government that the best way of achieving low and stable inflation is to aim for annual consumer price inflation of between 2 and 3 per cent. While all outcomes within that range are consistent with our price stability objective, the Board sets policy to return inflation to the midpoint of the target. But the agreement with the government provides flexibility around the timeframe in which we meet our inflation objective. This is because we need to balance meeting our inflation objective with our full employment objective – achieving the maximum level of employment that is consistent with low and stable inflation. The reason I set this out is to give context to the Board’s current strategy for monetary policy. The Board is trying to bring inflation back to target in a reasonable timeframe while preserving as many of the gains in the labour market that we have seen in the past few years. This is the so-called narrow path. post: RBA GOVERNOR BULLOCK: FOCUS ON POTENTIAL UPSIDE INFLATION RISK post: GOVERNOR BULLOCK OF RBA: BALANCE CURRENTLY CORRECT BETWEEN INFLATION AND EMPLOYMENT post: RBA GOVERNOR BULLOCK: TOO EARLY TO CONSIDER RATE CUTS