“The RBA just seems to be removing the conditionality from forward guidance about more hikes,” said Tim Baker, head of macro research at Deutsche Bank AG. “So probably a case of dispensing with the pause narrative.”
Australia’s central bank raised interest rates by a quarter-percentage point and said further tightening will be needed to crush stubbornly-high inflation, sending the currency and bond yields higher.
At its first meeting of the year, the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 3.35%, the highest level since September 2012, in a widely-anticipated decision. In his statement outlining expectations of further hikes, Governor Philip Lowe dropped last year’s qualifier that the bank wasn’t on a pre-set path on rates.
