SYDNEY, March 19 — Australia made a historic foray into quantitative easing today and said it would do “whatever is necessary” to ensure funding costs are low and credit is freely available as the coronavirus pandemic jolts businesses. Following an out-of-schedule meeting, the Reserve Bank of...
The RBA’s stimulus follows an unprecedented step up in global co-ordination by central banks, governments and regulators since the start of this week to cushion the impact of the coronavirus. — Reuters pic
It also set a target for the yield on three-year Australian government bonds at around 0.25 per cent, which it plans to achieve by purchases in the secondary market beginning tomorrow. The announcement helped push three-year yields to 0.35 per cent from 0.589 per cent before the RBA’s decision, though they were still higher than the new target.
The US Federal Reserve on Sunday slashed key rates by 100 basis points, boosted asset purchases and flushed the system with liquidity. A number of other major central banks have followed suit. But the coronavirus now hangs heavy over the outlook with economists at major banks predicting the country would slide into recession in the first half of this year.
Lowe said the cash rate was likely to stay at 0.25 per cent for three years, adding Australia needed to steel itself for a rise in unemployment in coming months.
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