Record low for Australian rates
AUSTRALIA’S central bank cut its main cash rate by a quarter point to a record low of 2.5 per cent yesterday as it tries to prepare for life after the mining boom.
This was the eighth move in an easing cycle that began back in November 2011 and takes rates below the depths hit during the global financial crisis.
Markets have already penned in another move to 2.25 per cent by Christmas and there is no hint of a tightening priced in for at least the next year. Mining investment has quadrupled as a share of the Australian economy in recent years, but now looks to have peaked.