This article provides an initial assessment of the effect of the Reserve Bank's bond purchase program on government bond yields. Overall, we estimate that the program has reduced longer-term Australian Government Security (AGS) yields by around 30 basis points and lowered the spread of state and territory bond yields to AGS yields by 5 to 10 basis points, relative to where they would otherwise have been. This reduction in yields occurred partly in anticipation of the program and partly at its announcement. Bond yields have risen noticeably since the program was announced, but this does not imply that the impact of the program was transitory: many factors contribute to changes in bond yields, and our assessment is that bond purchases serve to hold yields lower than they would otherwise have been over an extended period. The bond purchase program has not had any substantial negative impact on the functioning of government bond markets.

Our analysis finds that Australians generally do not have to travel far to reach their nearest cash access point – a location where they may make cash withdrawals and/or deposits. Around 95 per cent of people live within about 5 kilometres of a cash access point, broadly unchanged since 2017. However, there are parts of regional and remote Australia with limited access to cash. People in these areas must travel longer distances to access cash, and the available access points do not always have nearby alternatives. This means that access to cash in these areas is more vulnerable to any future removal of cash services.

The Australian Government introduced significant fiscal support measures to limit the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and support economic recovery. In its capacity as the banker to the Commonwealth of Australia, and importantly as transactional banker to the large agencies charged with delivering a number of these measures, the Reserve Bank facilitated the distribution of fiscal stimulus payments to households and businesses. Improvements in government processes to ensure bank account details are available when delivering large-scale economic stimulus programs ensured that the COVID-19 stimulus payments were delivered more quickly and efficiently when compared to the stimulus payments made during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008 and 2009. This meant that there was little delay for the economic stimulus to be available to the recipients and the economic support to take effect.

Thank you for the invitation to join the Australian Farm Institute's conference. It is a great pleasure for me to visit Toowoomba and to learn more about the issues facing the farm sector and regional Australia.

As we all know, the past year has been an extremely challenging one in the life of our nation. But as a country we pulled together, and we have been up to the task. The results are evident in our health and economic outcomes, which are better than elsewhere in the world. It is important that we don't lose sight of this.

This morning, I would like to talk about how the economy is now transitioning from recovery mode to expansion mode, and highlight some of the issues that this raises, including for regional Australia. I will then conclude with some comments about the outlook for monetary policy.

Back in March last year, the national economic strategy quickly turned to building a bridge to the day when the virus was contained. The idea was to...

The Council of Financial Regulators (the Council) held its quarterly meeting on Friday, 11 June. Topics covered included housing market risks, financial risks from climate change, financial market infrastructure (FMI) developments, cyber risk and the regulatory arrangements for e-conveyancing. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) attended for selected agenda items.

Members discussed developments in household borrowing and the housing market. Housing credit growth has picked up and a further increase is expected over the months ahead. Over the past few years owner-occupiers have accounted for most of the increase in household borrowing. The demand for credit by investors has been subdued, but is now increasing. Housing markets are strong across Australia.

Council members reiterated the need for lending standards to remain sound in an environment of low interest rates and rising housing prices. There...

What monetary policy measures have we implemented since the outbreak of COVID-19? Why were they implemented? How have they supported the Australian economy? Our host Judy Hitchen discusses these questions with members of our senior leadership team.

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.

Good morning. This is an audience that has much lived experience with the topic I would like to address today – the role of uncertainty and risk aversion in decision making. I will begin with some perspectives on how uncertainty and risk aversion may have been impacting key parts of the global economy and financial markets in the period between the global financial crisis (GFC) and the start of the pandemic. I will then switch gears to discuss where some of these issues may or may not be relevant to the domestic outlook as we emerge from a once-in-a-century shock.

Uncertainty and risk aversion are difficult concepts to pin down – they can't be observed directly and can mean different things in different contexts. Today I will discuss uncertainty mostly in the one-sided sense of how people perceive the likelihood of bad outcomes, while referring to risk aversion, or ‘animal spirits’, in relation to how people act in the face of uncertainty. One way to consider it is as...

Preliminary estimates for May indicate that the index increased by 5.9 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after increasing by 2.2 per cent in April (revised). The rural, non-rural and base metals sub-indices all increased in the month. In Australian dollar terms, the index increased by 5.8 per cent in May.

Over the past year, the index has increased by 39.7 per cent in SDR terms, led by higher iron ore prices. The index has increased by 23.8 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 8.8 per cent in May in SDR terms, to be 51.7 per cent higher over the past year.

For further details regarding the construction of the...

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.