According to a research note by the firm's economists Justin Fabo and Ric Deverell, on 14 March
Macquarie Bank had previously forecasted the RBA to hike rates twice this year, once in August and another in November. But their latest note says that they are revising those forecasts to a no hike scenario by the RBA this year.
The note mentioned that high unemployment rate, low ages and price inflation prompted them to believe that the RBA will "err on the side of supporting growth for longer to gain more confidence that inflation will once gain spend more time in the 2-3% target than not".
The firm's medium-term view remains unchanged and they forecast that the cash rate will hit 3% by the end of year 2020.
However, they have revised their 2019 growth forecast for Australia to 3.1% - up from 2.75% previously. 2018 growth forecast remains unchanged at 2.9%.
The "no rate hike" call for 2018 is in line with median estimates from Bloomberg's survey here.
