Economic News

The Reserve Bank has been consistent on productivity. In its 11 August 2026Monetary Policydecision, it stated plainly that "historically weak productivity growth continues to constrain potential growth." That is a direct assessment, and it frames why the AI investment wave is drawing attention.

The conclusion came in a joint paper with the Treasury updating the case for a retail CBDC, one of three items the Reserve Bank released on 3 September 2026 alongside a consultation on its settlement infrastructure and a web page tracking its post-Project Acacia …

Jones anchored the pivot in the results of Project Acacia. The project brought together 57 industry participants to test 20 use cases, and, importantly, it dealt largely with real-money transactions rather than hypothetical scenarios. That gives the findings practical weight.

The consultation was one of three items the Reserve Bank released on 3 September 2026, set out in its media release on the RITS consultation and retail CBDC update. The other two were a joint paper with the Treasury on the case for a …

That tension sits at the heart of the current housing debate. A softening market and a chronic shortage of homes can, and do, coexist. Understanding how the Reserve Bank reconciles the two helps explain why officials are neither alarmed by falling prices nor confident …

Speaking at the AFR Property Summit on 8 September 2026, Assistant Governor (Economic) Sarah Hunter described three transmission channels of a housing correction. Crucially, she also drew a careful line around the much-discussed figure of a roughly 10 per cent price fall, making clear …

Speaking at the AFR Property Summit on 8 September 2026, Assistant Governor (Economic) Sarah Hunter said the bank did not expect a recession, and repeated the point after developers raised the prospect of a "full-blown recession". Her framing is important: the housing slowdown now …