At its meeting today, the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to lower the cash rate by 25 basis points to 0.50 per cent.

• The coronavirus has clouded the near-term outlook for the global economy and means that global growth in the first half of 2020 will be lower than earlier expected.
• Inflation remains low almost everywhere and unemployment rates are at multi-decade lows in many countries.
• The Australian dollar has also depreciated further recently and is at its lowest level for many years.
• The unemployment rate increased in January to 5.3 per cent and has been around 5¼ per cent since April last year.

The Board is prepared to ease monetary policy further to support the Australian economy.

To view the full statement of Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank, please click here.

 

Published : 02 Mar 2020