“It is not clear what new Treasurer Josh Frydenberg discussed with Reserve Bank Governor Phillip Lowe during their recent conversation, but one thing that should have been top of the agenda is a reworking of the Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy.
The appointment of a new Treasurer opens the door for this vitally important policy document on how the RBA undertakes its policy task to be updated and revamped.
In September 2016, when former Treasurer Scott Morrison and newly appointed Governor Lowe updated the framework in which the RBA would operate monetary policy, “financial stability” was included as an objective for policy. It is not clear why this would have been added to the RBA’s agenda when the existing 2 to 3 per cent inflation target had been working so well.
Whatever the reason, the inclusion of “financial stability” has meant the RBA has downplayed, if not effectively abandoned its inflation target and this explains the ongoing sluggishness in the rate of growth, the still high level of labour market underutilsation and the associated record low wages growth which has been seen in the past year.
One of the first things Mr Frydenberg should do as Treasurer is revamp the Government’s conduct of monetary policy and exclude financial stability, which was never defined, and return the focus to the inflation target.”
