SYDNEY: Australia's reserve bank indicated Tuesday it remains comfortable keeping interest rates on hold with above average costs of borrowing helping to contain inflation in the medium-term.
The minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's April 5 board meeting noted that loan rates facing businesses and households were "a little above average levels", thanks to earlier official rate increases.
The RBA said this was appropriate to inflation remaining consistent with the two to three percent medium-term target it imposed on itself in 1993.
The board kept the cash rate on hold at 4.75 percent at that meeting, citing rising commodity prices as the main reason.
It last hiked rates in November 2010 in a pre-emptive move against inflation amid the threat of rising commodity prices and a tightening labour market.
While the bank acknowledged that natural disasters in Australia and Japan would impact March quarter growth, the board said it was looking through short-term disruptions to the medium-term picture.
"In the short-term, the economic data were likely to be significantly affected by the earlier floods and cyclone," it said.
"Headline inflation was likely to be quite high in the March quarter, while GDP would be held down, to a greater extent than earlier assumed, by the lost coal production and the delays in resuming mining operations.
"In reaching its decision, the board would look through these fluctuations."
Australia, the first major western economy to raise interest rates after the global slump, has hiked its cash rate by 175 basis points since October 2009 as it rides a mining boom driven by Asian demand, helping it dodge recession.
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