Cash Rate – No change
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.50%.
A mixed bag of economic indicators has continued to influence the RBA to advocate a hold and wait policy. Retail sales rebounded in April, following two soft months. Company profits rose 6.0% in the March quarter against a market consensus of a 4.5% gain and inventories jumped 1.2% – more than twice market expectations of a 0.5% rise. The main negative has been the slow wage growth of only 0.3% for the March quarter resulting in only a 0.9% increase for the past 12 months.
Tomorrow’s announcement of the GDP figures will show positive growth, but will be well below Australia’s long-term trend rate of 3.4%. The RBA will continue to consider all domestic and international data but we believe they will most likely retain the current cash rate at 1.50% for the remainder of 2017.
For more information, or if you would like a free review of your residential, commercial or SMSF loans against other competitive products in the market please contact Peter, David or Simon via this email, our phone: (03) 9882 2500, or visit www.firstpointgroup.com.au
