Australia’s central bank will cut interest rates to 1 percent within a year to combat weak inflation and rising unemployment and could then turn to unconventional monetary policy, according to Alan Oster, the chief economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. Announcing updated rate forecasts in conjunction with the release of NAB’s July business confidence and conditions survey that both showed declines, Oster is focused on risks to the economic outlook in 2018, when a lift in natural-gas exports levels off and a dwelling construction cycle turns down. The Reserve Bank of Australia “is seemingly less worried than we thought about using up some of its valuable remaining...
↧