SYDNEY, Nov 4 — Australia's central bank unanimously voted to keep interest rates on hold, following an unexpected rise in inflation, reported Xinhua.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) Monetary Policy Board (MPB) said that following a scheduled meeting today, it has decided to keep the cash rate target unchanged at 3.60 per cent.
The decision to keep the key interest rate on hold followed a spike in inflation in the third quarter of 2025 and was in line with unanimous forecasts from economists and major banks.
In its monetary policy decision statement, the RBA MPB said that there is uncertainty about the outlook for domestic economic activity and inflation stemming from domestic and international developments.
"Uncertainty in the global economy remains elevated, but so far there has been minimal impact on overall growth and trade, and many forecasters have revised up their near-term expectations for world growth. Trade policy developments are still expected to have an adverse effect on world growth over time," it said.
Australia's quarterly rate of inflation hit a two-year high in the three months to the end of September, according to official data released in October by the Australian Statistics Bureau (ABS).
Annual trimmed mean inflation, the measure of underlying inflation preferred by the RBA, hit 3.0 per cent in the 12 months to September, up from 2.7 per cent in the year to the end of the preceding June quarter.
In August, the RBA forecast that underlying inflation would remain stable around the midpoint of its 2-3 per cent target range through the end of 2027.
It had previously cut the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points three times in 2025 from 4.35 per cent at the start of the year.
The MPB will next meet on December 9 to consider changing the cash rate.
