Wall Street Journal on new, more hawkish, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock

A piece in the Wall Street Journal argues that new Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock is more hawkish than previous Governor Lowe. I agree.

Says the article (in very brief):

• a new era of hawkishness that could fuel a series of rate hikes next year
• RBA Governor Michele Bullock … has moved to signal quite forcefully that the risks around inflation going forward are still considerable
• The RBA is now indicating … increasingly it feels as if its tolerance for any persistence in the inflation data will see it hike further

There is much more to it and well worth checking out (link but may be gated ).

The article refers to Bullock’s speech in the middle of this week, covered here:

• RBA Governor Bullock: Inflation is broad-based, trimmed mean remains too high

And emphasised here:

• a more substantial monetary policy tightening is the right response to inflation that results from aggregate demand exceeding the economy’s potential to meet that demand

In that second linked piece, you’ll see National Australia Bank expecting a rate hike at the February 5-6 meeting in 2024, right after the update to official quarterly inflation on January 31 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Journal piece on this:

• There’s growing attention on the first policy meeting for next year in February, when the RBA will have seen fourth-quarter inflation data. Any hint of disappointment in the CPI will likely spur further tightening

Go the Hawks!

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com. Source