Philip Lowe: The recovery from a very uneven recession

Address by Mr Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, at Citi's 12th Annual Australia and New Zealand Investment Conference, Sydney, 15 October 2020.

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

It is a great pleasure to be able to join you today. It is especially good to be able to join you in person, rather than over the internet. This is the first time since February that I have been able to speak to a room of people. I hope this is another sign that the worst is behind us and that a recovery is under way.

Today, I would like to talk about that recovery and four interrelated factors that will shape it. These are: (i) how successful we are in containing the virus; (ii) how effectively we deal with the shadow of the very uneven recession; (iii) how willing people and businesses are to draw on their accumulated financial buffers; and (iv) economic policy, including monetary policy.

As we all know, the past seven months have been very difficult ones in the life of our nation. They are months that we will always remember. Our lives have been affected in ways that were barely imaginable at the start of the year. The economic policy response has also been on a scale that was barely imaginable back in January.