By www.CentralBankNews.info Australia’s central bank held its benchmark cash rate steady at 2.5 percent, as expected, but is clearly concerned over the recent rise in the Australian dollar, describing the exchange rate as “uncomfortably high” and saying that a “lower exchange rate is likely to be needed to achieve balanced growth in the economy.”
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which has cut its cash rate by 50 basis points this year for total cuts of 225 points since November 2011, acknowledged the recent improvement in household and business sentiment and expects private demand outside the mining sector to pick up speed, but added it was “still too soon to judge how persistent this will be.”
