Barclays On RBA's decision.....>

AUSTRALIA DATA REACT: Barclays On RBA's decision to keep cash rate unchanged:

"As widely expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept its cash rate

unchanged at 1.50% today. Ahead of this Friday's Statement on Monetary Policy,

the RBA signaled that it expects its projections to remain broadly unchanged,

despite the recent downside surprise in inflation. There was no change in the

central bank's policy guidance: the RBA maintained its view that the economy

remains on a path of gradual recovery, with inflation picking up only slowly

amid low wage and income growth. 

- "Overall, today's policy decision gave little away in terms of any major

rethink on the RBA's part. The recent economic data have been mixed, with the

focus now shifting to Q3 wage and GDP data over the next month. In terms of

monetary policy, we expect the RBA to stay in a holding pattern in H1 18 and

wait for signs of a more broad-based recovery across businesses and in household

incomes before firmly signaling any change in policy stance. We expect the RBA

to stay on hold until H2 18 and raise the policy rate 25bp at the August 2018

MPC meeting followed by a 25bp rate hike in November."