Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Feed Items

This paper explores the formation of households' wage and inflation expectations using a common dataset and framework, documenting a number of stylised facts. We find that households tend to form wage and inflation expectations somewhat differently. Households associate higher wages growth with good economic outcomes, but higher inflation with worse economic outcomes. Wages expectations also tend to be somewhat more forward looking, while inflation expectations are more backward looking, especially for lower income households, and place a disproportionate weight on past fuel prices. These findings paint a picture of households having a somewhat 'supply-side' view of inflation, where shocks that push up inflation also weaken the economy, but a more 'demand-side' view of wages, where shocks that push up wages also strengthen the economy, which may make communication of monetary policy and the outlook more challenging.

Speech by Sarah Hunter, Assistant Governor (Economic), Citi Australia and New Zealand Investment Conference.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is commencing its Review into Retail Payments Regulation.

Speech by Christopher Kent, Assistant Governor (Financial Markets).

The Bank today released the Reserve Bank Board’s Review of the Term Funding Facility.

Speech by Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor, at the Business Journalism Awards.

Media release number 2024-19: The Reserve Bank of Australia today released the 2024 Assessment of the ASX Clearing and Settlement Facilities. This assesses the performance of the ASX CS Facilities against the Bank's Financial Stability Standards.

At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35 per cent and the interest rate paid on Exchange Settlement balances unchanged at 4.25 per cent.

Occupational entry regulations (OER) are legal requirements that people need to meet to enter certain professions. They are intended to protect consumers by ensuring providers are of sufficient quality – but they can also create costs by making it harder for new workers to enter a profession or for new firms to open and grow. In this paper we construct a database of OER stringency across three states and a number of occupations to better understand these potential costs. We find that for services provided to consumers (businesses), OER tend to be more (less) stringent in Australia compared with the average OECD country. In most occupations OER are more stringent in Australia compared to the least stringent OECD country. We find that more stringent OER are associated with lower business entry and exit rates, and a slower flow of workers from less to more productive firms, both of which may have negative implications for productivity. We also find some tentative evidence that OER tend to be associated with skill shortages. These results do not necessarily suggest that OER should be less stringent. But they fill a gap in our understanding of the effects of OER, which can help policymakers going forward.

Speech by Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System), at the Intersekt Conference.