Philip Lowe: An economic update

Address by Mr Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, to the Armidale Business Chamber, Armidale, 24 September 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
25 September 2019

I would like to thank the Armidale Business Chamber for the invitation to speak this evening. I grew up in regional New South Wales - in Cootamundra and Wagga Wagga - so it is a treat for me to have been invited to speak in another great regional city. Thank you.

Tonight, I would like to provide you with an economic update. I will focus first on the global situation and then talk about the Australian economy. And finally, I will make some remarks about monetary policy.

The main message on the global economy is that while it is still growing reasonably well, the risks are increasingly tilted to the downside. The main source of these downside risks are geopolitical developments in many parts of the world. These developments are creating considerable uncertainty and this uncertainty is causing businesses to reconsider their spending plans. This is making the international environment more challenging for us.

On the Australian economy, there are two main messages.