Stevens Says RBA Has Rate Ammunition as Swan Pushes for Growth

Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens said Australia has room to adjust interest rates in response to a global slowdown as Treasurer Wayne Swan called on European nations to balance economic growth with fiscal tightening.

“On monetary policy, we have ammunition,” Stevens said at an Oct. 12 seminar at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Tokyo. “Unusually for an advanced country, we actually have materially positive interest rates, so if needed we have scope to move there as long as inflation is okay, which at present it seems to be.”