In the Australian Financial Review this morning:

  • Reserve Bank of Australia officials will appear in front of the Australian Senate’s economics committee on Thursday
  • For a special hearing “to explain their backflip on the risks associated with the housing boom and the need to put brakes on investment lending
  • Committee chairman Sam Dastyari told The Australian Financial Review on Sunday he was “concerned about the unanticipated consequences of the Reserve Banks’s view-change on the sustainability of the housing boom and whether it needed to interfere with bank lending”
  • Another member of the committee, Nationals Senator Matthew Canavan said “I don’t think a clear case has been made yet for macro-prudential action in Australia and the Reserve Bank seem to have had more self-doubt on this issue than Saint Augustine.”
  • The Financial Review understands the Reserve Bank’s deputy governor Philip Lowe has been invited to appear before the committee.

Link

The RBA is concerned about the rapid rise in house prices and the rapid rise in investment lending being poured into the housing sector. They said last week they were going to consider macroprudentail tools as a way of tempering the growth:

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Financial Stability Review – housing unbalanced, discussing steps.

RBA Stevens: One area of concern is investor housing finance growth

More on – Australian Central Bank Says Housing Unbalanced, Discussing Steps With Regulators