According to the latest Bloomberg survey of 24 economists, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) remains on track for its first-ever consecutive 50 basis point interest-rate hikes, as they step up their efforts to contain inflation.
Key takeaways
“The RBA will raise its cash rate to 1.35% next month from a current 0.85%.“
“They have been revising up their forecasts following Governor Philip Lowe’s bigger-than-expected hike last week.”
Separately, Goldman Sachs forecasts that the RBA will follow up with another half-point hike in July and keep raising the benchmark to 2.6% by year’s end.
“We view risks as skewed to an even faster pace of tightening, including a material risk of an additional 50-basis-point hike in August,” Andrew Boak, Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs said.
“While this represents a rapid policy tightening over the coming year, our recent analysis suggests the Australian economy will be able to absorb materially higher interest rates in the near-term,” he added.
