Economy tanking under Labor, page-172

RBA Board minutes highlight concerns about inflation

4h ago

By Gareth Hutchens

The minutes of the RBA Board's most recent meeting, on June 17 and 18, were released 10 minutes ago.

My colleague Peter Ryan has summarised the minutes in this way:

The Reserve Bank board expressed alarm that an inflation spike from levels seen in April "could require significantly higher interest rates" that would have "adverse implications" for employment and economic growth.

The warning predated the unexpected surge in monthly inflation to 4 per cent in May, up from 3.6 per cent in April.

That rise in monthly inflation revealed last week has seen money market bets for an August rate hike increase to a 32 per cent probability.

The minutes reveal concern from the Board that an increase in market pricing for an interest rate rise appeared to "compensate for the risk that inflation turned out to be higher than expected".