Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Lowe before the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Economics

  • expected pick-up in growth supported by monetary policy, a new expansion phase in the resources sector, stronger consumer spending and a recovery in dwelling investment later this year

A cheerful opening from Kuroda Lowe

More:

  • says central forecast for economic growth to pick up to 2¾ per cent this year and 3 per cent over 2021.
  • says outlook is also supported by an expected modest lift in global growth
  • says still some significant areas of uncertainty
  • says the outbreak of the coronavirus represents a new source of uncertainty
  • the international spillovers of coronavirus could be larger than they were back in 2003 SARS outbreak
  • we expect household consumption to pick up gradually
  • drought continuing to act as a drag on the economy; expected to reduce GDP growth by a quarter of a percentage point this year
  • easing of monetary policy is also supporting a turnaround in housing investment, exchange rate, export demand. "so, it is working"
  • expecting progress to be made towards the inflation target and full employment
  • but that progress is expected to be only gradual and there are uncertainties
  • given that, board has been discussing the case for a further easing of monetary policy in an effort to speed the pace of progress and to make it more assured
  • lower interest rates could also encourage more borrowing by households, increase risk of problems down the track
  • if unemployment rises, no progress toward inflation target, balance would tip towards easing
  • continuing to watch the labour market carefully
  • negative interest rates in Australia are extraordinary unlikely, not a direction we need to go in
  • threshold for undertaking QE has not been reached in Australia and i do not expect it to be reached
  • says QE not on our agenda at the moment
  • QE would be considered only at a cash rate of 0.25 %
  • we have no appetite to purchase private sector assets as part of any QE program -c focus would be on purchasing government securities to out downward pressure on longer-term interest rates

Headlines via Reuters. All of that lot from Lowe's opening statement (full text is here). After this Lowe will be answering questions (stupid and otherwise) from the reps. Plenty more to come from Lowe for the next 3 hours or so.

For those interested in QE from the RBA I bolded that comment on the cash rate and QE - seems a clear guide to the 'when' question.