Ian Harper, a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia board, made the following statement:
- Economic growth is not strong enough to raise interest rate.
- Australian dollar gains driven by weakness of the US dollar.
- The restrictions that have been put on property lending work well.
- While full-time employment levels have achieved impressive growth, unemployment has fallen, but the worrying issue is under-employment besides the slowdown in wage growth and household income because it indicates excess capacity.
- The Australian economy is still moving below expectations.
- Consumption represents two-third of GDP, and any slowdown in consumption will push GDP away from our expectations.
