The Statement comes out once a quarter ... due at 0030 GMT

I posted a couple of previews already:

This via National Australia Bank, in brief from a detailed piece (or two) ... I bolded the AUD remarks from the bank:

Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP) on Friday, which include updated forecasts

In its last SoMP, the RBA indicated ongoing uncertainty about the degree of slack in the labour market, inflation and consumption.

  • While recent labour market data confirms strong employment growth over 2017 (+400 jobs!), unemployment has remained stubbornly elevated, at 5.5%. This rate is above the RBA's estimate of the NAIRIU, and is indicative of ongoing slack in the market. However, should participation rate stabilise, the unemployment rate would begin to fall, something we are looking for to occur in the coming months.
  • The recent core inflation print of 0.4% q/q for the December quarter, brought trimmed mean inflation to 1.8%. While this number remains below the lower edge of the RBA's target of 2-3%, the RBA's forecasts show that the print was broadly expected by the Bank, and unlikely to significantly change the RBA's outlook. Inflation has stabilised and is gradually trending towards the RBA's target. As further strengthening in the labour market occurs, we expect inflation to rise to be comfortably back within the band over the medium term.
  • Retail sales and consumption remain on the low side, but business investment and infrastructure activity continues to reveal growth-supportive attributes.

Housing markets continue to cool

export sector should be benefitting from the better global outlook, despite some net $A appreciation. In this context we would note some lift also in commodity prices and that the net rise in the AUD/USD reflects as much the net decline in the USD.

The Statement is still likely to continue the reference to the notion that "An appreciating exchange rate would be expected to result in a slower pick-up in economic activity and inflation than currently forecast". There may well be some references to how recent weakness in the US dollar has been a key factor underpinning strength in the Australian dollar.