Key Highlights

  • Board minutes are released on 17 November, the same morning as a Governor's panel.
  • The Payments System Board meets on 19 November.
  • The October monthly CPI indicator and a markets speech are due on 25 November.
  • The RBA publishes its Bulletin on 26 November.

From the release of the November board minutes on 17 November to the next cash rate decision on 8 December, the Reserve Bank's calendar is packed with publications, data and meetings worth tracking.

Central bank calendars can look like dry lists of dates. Read in sequence, they tell a story about how information reaches the public. The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) website calendar for the second half of November 2026 is a good example. Over roughly three weeks, it moves from an account of the last policy meeting, through fresh Inflation data and research, to the next decision.

It does not predict what any release will show.

According to the RBA website, the key dates are:

  • 17 November, 10.00 am AEDT: Governor Michele Bullock on a panel at the ASIC Annual Forum, Sydney.
  • 17 November, 11.30 am AEDT: Minutes of the November 2026 Monetary Policy Board meeting.
  • 19 November: Payments System Board meeting.
  • 20 November: Renée Fry-McKibbin, Monetary Policy Board member, at CAMA, Canberra.
  • 25 November: Monthly CPI indicator for October; David Jacobs, Head of Domestic Markets, speaks at the Australian securitisation conference, Sydney.
  • 26 November: RBA Bulletin.
  • 8 December, 2.30 pm: Next cash rate decision.

Earlier in the month, the RBA also published its Chart Pack on 4 November, the index of Commodity Prices for October on 2 November and the RBA Balance Sheet on 6 November.

17 November: the minutes

The minutes of the November meeting are likely to be the most closely read document in this stretch. They follow a decision that raised the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.85 per cent, effective 4 November, and that was taken by majority. Six members voted to increase and three voted to leave the rate unchanged at 4.60 per cent.

The decision statement already gave the board's core reasoning. It said "the Board judged that a further tightening in financial conditions is warranted" and that "Inflation is now forecast to remain elevated through much of 2027". It ended: "The Board will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target."

Minutes typically give a fuller account of the discussion than a short statement can. What the minutes actually contain will only be known on release.

The same morning, Governor Bullock appears on a panel at the ASIC Annual Forum at 10.00 am AEDT, an hour and a half before the minutes are published. At her 3 November media conference, she said: "It is critical that we stop expectations for high inflation from becoming embedded in price-setting decisions".

19 to 20 November: payments and a board member

On 19 November, the Payments System Board meets. The meeting falls during the rollout of the RBA's retail payments reforms; in the words of its findings, "Surcharging on debit and Credit cards should end from 1 October 2026." A cap on interchange for foreign-issued cards and some transparency changes come into effect "later, on 1 April 2027".

On 20 November, Monetary Policy Board member Renée Fry-McKibbin appears at CAMA in Canberra. With a scheduled 12 November address by board member Marnie Baker AM cancelled owing to unforeseen family circumstances, this is the remaining listed appearance by a board member other than the Governor in this period.

25 to 26 November: inflation data and research

The October monthly CPI indicator arrives on 25 November. It is worth being precise about measures here, because several are in circulation:

  • Monthly CPI indicator (headline): 4.3 per cent in the year to the September month.
  • Quarterly headline CPI: 3.9 per cent over the year to the September quarter.
  • Trimmed mean (underlying): 3.7 per cent over the year to the September quarter.

The 25 November release updates the monthly indicator, the first of these. It is not a new quarterly figure. The November Statement on Monetary Policy forecast that "Headline inflation is expected to peak at 4.5 per cent in the December 2026 quarter", with headline inflation at 3.7 per cent and trimmed mean at 3.5 per cent by June 2027. The Statement's overview added: "Headline and trimmed mean inflation are now expected to remain above 3 per cent until end-2027". A single monthly print is one data point against that outlook.

Also on 25 November, David Jacobs, Head of Domestic Markets, speaks at the Australian Securitisation conference in Sydney. On 26 November, the RBA publishes its Bulletin.

8 December: the decision

The stretch ends with the next cash rate decision at 2.30 pm on 8 December. For context, the November Statement's cash rate assumption, drawn from market pricing as at 28 October, has the cash rate path that "increases by 35 basis points by mid-2027, before declining a little to stabilise at 4.8 per cent in 2028." That is a market-based assumption used for forecasting, not an RBA commitment or prediction.

Other inputs will also be in view. The Unemployment rate "rose by more than expected to average 4.6 per cent in the September quarter", according to the Statement. The October 2026 Financial Stability Review found that the share of variable-rate owner-occupier borrowers with a cash-flow shortfall "remains relatively low at around 2 per cent."

The bottom line

The RBA's calendar from 17 November offers a clear sequence: the minutes of a split November decision and a Governor's panel on the same morning, a Payments System Board meeting and a board member's appearance later that week, the October monthly CPI indicator and a markets speech on 25 November, and the Bulletin on 26 November, all ahead of the 8 December decision. Keeping the measures straight, especially the monthly headline figure of 4.3 per cent versus the quarterly 3.9 per cent headline and 3.7 per cent trimmed mean, will help in reading whatever the new data show.