No Melbourne Cup Day rate hike required - Shadow RBA

Australia's official interest rates should remain on hold in November, The Australian National University (ANU) RBA Shadow Board has found. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will meet on Tuesday 6 November to review interest-rate settings, which have been at a record low of 1.5 per cent since August 2016. Chair of the RBA Shadow Board Dr Timo Henckel said with the country's growth rate still standing at 0.9 per cent and unemployment down just slightly, there was no need for immediate action on rates. "The RBA Shadow Board has ruled out any likelihood that a reduction in interest rates could be called for," Dr Henckel said. "It is 53 per cent confident that keeping interest rates on hold at 1.5 per cent is the appropriate setting, (up eight per cent since last month), while the confidence attached to a required rate hike was 47 per cent." According to the ABS, the unemployment rate in Australia fell by 0.3 per cent in the past month, to five per cent. However, net employment increased by a mere 5,600, suggesting it was the significant reduction in the labour force participation rate (from 65.7 per cent to 65.4 per cent) that was responsible for generating the drop in unemployment. "New data on real wage growth, which has been worryingly subdued for several years now and is thus closely watched by economists, will not be released until the middle of November," Dr Henckel said.