Australia: RBA Governor's testimony in focus for the week ahead – Deutsche Bank

The RBA Governor's parliamentary testimony is due to take place on Friday 11 August and will be a key event for Australian markets in the coming week.

Key Quotes

“We see little opportunity for the Governor to add much on the policy outlook given the breadth of recent communication. Rather, the Governor is likely to reiterate the firmly on-hold policy stance expressed in the SMP, which may include again highlighting the 'academic' nature of the discussion during the July Board meeting of a neutral nominal cash rate at 3.5%. As is often the case during these parliamentary testimonies, the Governor might also take the opportunity to highlight the importance of broader macro-economic policy tools as an accompaniment to monetary policy. Following the Governor's testimony, two speeches by RBA officials are scheduled in the week ahead. RBA  Assistant Governor  Christopher Kent will speak at the Moody's Analytics Forum, Sydney, on Monday, and Assistant Governor Luci Ellis will speak at the Workshop of the Australasian Macroeconomics Society (WAMS) in Canberra on Thursday.”

“On the data front, July labour force figures are due Thursday. We expect another robust employment gain of 20k in the month, consistent with the recovery over recent months in our monthly labour market tracker. We expect the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 5.6%. Ahead of that, Q2 wages are due Wednesday. We expect another soft outturn, matching the Q1 gain of 0.5%qoq. This would see the year-ended rate remain at a record low 1.9%. Finally, the minutes to the Bank's August Board meeting are due Tuesday.”