RBA not expected to move rates in March
(04 March 2013 – Australia) The majority of economists believe the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will not move the official cash rate when it meets on Tuesday.
All 13 economists surveyed by AAP said the RBA would not reduce the cash rate at its 5 March board meeting, but nine of those expect a rate cut some time in the next six months.
The expectations of a rate cut changed after a surge in mining investment, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said its fifth estimate of capital expenditure (capex) for this financial year was four percent higher than for the previous financial year.
Those figures allayed concerns that the boom in mining investment was coming to an end, concerns sparked by large fall in commodity prices in 2012 that caused some of Australia's biggest mining to shelve some projects.
The latest capex figures show the mining peak, which the RBA believes would be this year, will most likely be more of a plateau than a peak.
The RBA delivered four interest rate cuts in calendar year 2012, taking the cash rate to three percent by December.
The slight surge in mining investment should give the RBA more time to measure the effects of last year’s rate cuts in the non-mining sectors, as it has planned.
The expectations of a rate cut changed after a surge in mining investment, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said its fifth estimate of capital expenditure (capex) for this financial year was four percent higher than for the previous financial year.
Those figures allayed concerns that the boom in mining investment was coming to an end, concerns sparked by large fall in commodity prices in 2012 that caused some of Australia's biggest mining to shelve some projects.
The latest capex figures show the mining peak, which the RBA believes would be this year, will most likely be more of a plateau than a peak.
The RBA delivered four interest rate cuts in calendar year 2012, taking the cash rate to three percent by December.
The slight surge in mining investment should give the RBA more time to measure the effects of last year’s rate cuts in the non-mining sectors, as it has planned.
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