RBA assistant governor for economics Luci Ellis on Wednesday has addressed the Urban Development Institute of Australia 2022 national conference in Sydney on "Housing in the Endemic Phase".
The comments have been listed by central bank observers for any clues to the likely speed of interest rate hikes in coming months. Besides insights to the housing sector, on monetary policy, Ellis argued that there will be more rate rises from here but cannot say where the peak will be from here.
Despite the prospects of further rate increases, the Aussie has remained in the early Asians session sell-off as the US dollar picks up a bid, retracing back to test the vicinity of the early New York session highs as per the DXY index.
Meanwhile, the RBA raised the cash rate to 0.35 per cent from a record low 0.1 per cent this month, the first increase in over a decade, in the face of a spike in inflation to 5.1 per cent.
The comments today from Ellis are a rehash of the minutes of that board meeting that agreed that further increases in interest rates would likely be required to ensure inflation returns to the two to three per cent target over time.
At this stage, the market has priced in a further interest rate rise of between 25 basis points and 50 basis points at its June 7 board meeting, and a rate of over 1.5 per cent by early next year.