RBA Cut Rate to Boost Business; Households Start to Respond
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The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low this month to boost businesses weakened by the currency’s sustained strength, even as households reacted to earlier reductions.
“Conditions in the business sector, as assessed in surveys, generally had remained below average, possibly in part because the exchange rate had remained high,” the RBA said in minutes of its May 7 meeting released today in Sydney. “Increasingly, the household sector had shown signs of responding to” lower rates.