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’.

Thank you to the Ai Group for the invitation to speak to you today. It's great to be in Geelong. It's been a big week for the Bank in Victoria, with the Board meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday and the Governor's speech that evening. I don't plan to repeat what he said or speak in detail about the Board's decision. Rather, I'd like to take a step back and talk about some aspects of how the Bank's economics team understand and interpret economic developments, so we can do the analysis that is an important input into the Board's decisions.

Most of our job is interpreting recent data and using that to forecast the future. We lean heavily on our intellectual frameworks in economics for thinking about how economies work. But we also need to account for an array of special factors and big-picture trends that don't sit neatly in top-down, whole-economy models, such as standard economic forecasting models. So today I'd like to talk about how we handle special factors in...

The Financial Stability Review provides the Bank's assessment of the current condition of the financial system and potential risks to financial stability. It contains a number of boxes on topics of special interest, along with occasional articles. The Review is issued half-yearly.

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. While the Reserve Bank of Australia does not publish the source data for the Chart Pack graphs, extensive statistical data are available on our website.

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

Good evening. On behalf of the Reserve Bank Board I would like to thank you for joining us at this community dinner. The Board held its monthly meeting here in Melbourne today. This was the first meeting that we have held in our new offices on Collins Street after last year selling our building on the corner of Collins and Exhibition Streets. So even if we are in a different location, it is really good to be back in Melbourne.

As you are probably aware, at our meeting today, the Board decided to cut the cash rate by a quarter of one per cent to 0.75 per cent.

This decision followed a detailed assessment of both global and domestic developments.

Globally, the main issue at the moment is the uncertainty generated by a series of geopolitical events, particularly the US–China disputes over trade and technology. Understandably, this uncertainty is causing many firms around the world to sit and wait before proceeding with costly investment...

Release date: 1 October 2019

Preliminary estimates for September indicate that the index decreased by 2.7 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after decreasing by 4.6 per cent in August (revised). The non-rural and rural subindices decreased in the month, while the base metals subindex increased. In Australian dollar terms, the index decreased by 3.5 per cent in September.

Over the past year, the index has increased by 1.8 per cent in SDR terms, led by higher iron ore, gold and beef & veal prices. The index has increased by 5.2 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 increased by 0.1 per cent in September in SDR terms, to be 2.5 per cent lower over the past year.

For further details...

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’.

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’.

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’.

I would like to thank the Armidale Business Chamber for the invitation to speak this evening. I grew up in regional New South Wales – in Cootamundra and Wagga Wagga – so it is a treat for me to have been invited to speak in another great regional city. Thank you.

Tonight, I would like to provide you with an economic update. I will focus first on the global situation and then talk about the Australian economy. And finally, I will make some remarks about monetary policy.

The main message on the global economy is that while it is still growing reasonably well, the risks are increasingly tilted to the downside. The main source of these downside risks are geopolitical developments in many parts of the world. These developments are creating considerable uncertainty and this uncertainty is causing businesses to reconsider their spending plans. This is making the international environment more challenging for us.

On the Australian economy, there are two...

Today I am going to talk about the lessons the RBA has learned in delivering technology change over the past five years and our approach to our continuing digital transformation. Central to this discussion will be the answer to the question, ‘How do I deal with the problem of growing technology complexity?’ In answering this question, I will explore the causes of growing technology complexity in the RBA and discuss how we're addressing these with the three dimensions of our Digital Transformation: the first being our focus on the resilience of our platforms; the second our approach to ensuring a digitally skilled workforce, and the third our emphasis on building stronger collaboration between IT, our core business and policy areas and the broader industry we integrate into. Finally, I will highlight the competing tensions that accompany a Digital Transformation and how we're seeking to balance these to deliver a successful technology capability for the RBA and the...

At its meeting on 18 September 2019, the Council of Financial Regulators (the Council) discussed risks facing the Australian financial system, regulatory issues and developments relevant to its members. The main topics discussed included the following:

Our series of Topical Talks provide opportunities for educators to enhance their understanding of economic concepts and developments in the Australian economy through hearing insights from an economist on a relevant topic. The talks are aimed at a range of educators, from secondary school to the tertiary sector.

Members commenced their discussion of the global economy by noting that business conditions in the manufacturing sectors in many economies had remained subdued. They discussed the escalation of the US–China trade and technology disputes, which had intensified the downside risks to the global outlook. By contrast, conditions in more domestically focused sectors had generally continued to be resilient, supported by ongoing strength in labour markets. Employment growth had remained robust in the major advanced economies, although it had eased a little in some economies in recent months, and unemployment rates had remained low. Although wages growth had picked up, year-ended inflation had remained below target in the major advanced economies. Members noted that inflation in the United States had increased in recent months.

The main development over the previous month had been the escalation of the US–China trade and technology disputes. The United States had announced...