off-the-wire

UPDATE 1-National Australia Bank expects Australia cash rate has peaked at 3.6%

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
(Adds comments from NAB; background) SYDNEY, April 5 (Reuters) - National Australia Bank said on Wednesday it expects that Australia's cash rate has peaked at its current rate of 3.6%, down from a previous forecast of 3.85%.


Just last week, the bank had lowered the peak rate call to 3.85%, from 4.1% previously. The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday left its cash rate unchanged at 3.6% to break a run of 10 hikes, saying that it wanted additional time to assess the impact of past increases as the economy slows and inflation has peaked. "In our view, waiting for more than a few months would see the RBA overrun by slowing consumption data and a deteriorating labour market outlook meaning the RBA will remain on hold as inflation moderates," said economists at NAB.


"We expect the RBA to remain on hold until the first half of 2024 before the cash rate is cut back to 3.1%." (Reporting by Stella Qiu in Sydney; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Christian Schmollinger)

Messaging: alasdair.pal.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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