Members commenced their discussion of the global economy by noting that growth in Australia's major trading partners had slowed over the past year from above-trend growth in 2017 and the first half of 2018. The slowing had been led by a decline in trade and investment growth, but recent indicators suggested that this weakness had begun to spill over to the services sector in some countries. Despite this, in major advanced economies employment growth had remained above growth in working-age population, but had eased, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Overall, labour market conditions remained tight but inflation remained below central banks' targets.

Growth in Australia's major trading partners was forecast to be around 3½ per cent in 2019 and 2020. These forecasts had been revised down a little since the August meeting, partly because the US–China trade and technology disputes had escalated over the previous three months. Members noted that the...

Today I am going to talk about mortgage arrears. Arrears are an important indicator of the financial health of households and so have implications for our assessment of current economic conditions and the economic outlook. They clearly are also an important indicator of the financial health of those writing mortgages, be it banks or non-banks. I will draw on material published in the October Financial Stability Review and a speech given by my colleague Jonathan Kearns.

The mortgage arrears rate, at 1 per cent, is low by both historical and international standards. Arrears in the US peaked at around 10 per cent in the financial crisis. Non-performing loans currently pose little risk to the health of financial institutions. This is not surprising in an environment where the unemployment rate is low and interest rates have been declining. Nonetheless, the arrears rates have been increasing steadily over recent years to the highest it has been...

The Statement on Monetary Policy sets out the Bank's assessment of current economic conditions, both domestic and international, along with the outlook for Australian inflation and output growth. A number of boxes on topics of special interest are also published. The Statement is issued four times a year.

The Chart Pack summarises macroeconomic and financial market trends in Australia and provides some information about developments for our main trading partners. The graphs in the Chart Pack are updated monthly. For more information about the source data for the Chart Pack graphs, see Data Availability. The Reserve Bank also publishes extensive statistical data on our website.

Browse the left-hand navigation to choose the graph subject category. You can then view or download the graphs individually.

Release date: 1 November 2019

Preliminary estimates for October indicate that the index decreased by 2.4 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after decreasing by 2.9 per cent in September (revised). The non-rural subindex decreased in the month, while the rural and base metals subindices increased. In Australian dollar terms, the index decreased by 2.0 per cent in October.

Over the past year, the index has decreased by 4.2 per cent in SDR terms, led by lower coal, LNG and alumina prices. The index has decreased by 1.3 per cent in Australian dollar terms.

Consistent with previous releases, preliminary estimates for iron ore, coking coal, thermal coal and LNG export prices are being used for the most recent months, based on market information. Using spot prices for the bulk commodities, the index decreased by 0.6 per cent in October in SDR terms, to be 6.7 per cent lower over the past year.

For further details regarding the...

Thank you for the invitation to deliver this year's Sir Leslie Melville lecture. When Ian Macfarlane delivered the inaugural lecture in this series in 2002, he said: ‘any objective assessment of achievements would place Sir Leslie among the most distinguished Australians of the past century’. It is a great privilege for me to be able to honour those achievements today.

Leslie Galfreid Melville had a long and close association with the Reserve Bank of Australia. He was a member of the Reserve Bank Board for most of the time between 1960 and 1975. And before joining the Board, he played a critical role in the debates that shaped the mandate given to the Reserve Bank in 1959. It is six decades now since that mandate was passed by Parliament. It has more than stood the test of time. From this perspective alone, we have a lot to thank Leslie Melville for.

In today's lecture I would like to discuss two issues that Melville had strong opinions on.

The...

In its role as Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia determines and implements monetary policy, fosters financial stability, undertakes a range of activities in financial markets, acts as banker to the Australian Government, issues Australia's banknotes and has policy, supervisory and operational roles in the payments system.

Australia's trading patterns have evolved considerably over the past century. Structural changes in Australia's economy and those of our trading partners have resulted in significant changes in the pattern of exports, imports and flows of income. At the same time, developments in financial markets and the investment needs of different sectors of the Australian economy have driven changes in the flow of capital.

This Explainer summarises the longer-term trends within the two sides of Australia's balance of payments: the current account and the combined capital and financial account. (For a discussion about the economic concepts and framework of the balance of payments, see Explainer: The Balance of Payments.)

Describes how changes made by the Reserve Bank to the cash rate – the ‘instrument’ of monetary policy – flow through to economic activity and inflation.

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The housing market has a pervasive impact on the Australian economy. It is the popular topic of any number of conversations around barbeques and dinner tables. It generates reams of newspaper stories and reality TV shows. You could be forgiven for thinking that the housing market is the Australian economy. That clearly is not the case. But at the same time, developments in the housing market, both the established market and housing construction, have a broader impact than the simple numbers would suggest.

This has been known for a long time, but often housing cycles have occurred simultaneously with other events. For example, the housing downturn in the early 1990s occurred at the same time as the 90s recession. As a result, it can be difficult to fully isolate the direct effect of the housing market itself from the other forces at work. We have models which go some way towards doing this, but they also tend to suffer from the problem of disentangling the...

Philip Lowe (Governor and Chair), Guy Debelle (Deputy Governor), Mark Barnaba AM, Wendy Craik AM, Ian Harper, Allan Moss AO, Carol Schwartz AO, Catherine Tanna

Matthew Flavel (Acting Secretary to the Australian Treasury) attended in place of Steven Kennedy PSM (Secretary to the Australian Treasury) in terms of section 22 of the Reserve Bank Act 1959.

The artwork is the designer's interpretation of various architectural photographs of the Forecourt Mosaic. The Forecourt Mosaic is based on a Central Desert dot-style painting by Michael Nelson Jagamara titled ‘Possum and Wallaby Dreaming’.

You can visit the Museum at any time for a self-guided tour of our permanent collection or exhibitions.

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