held interest rates steady at 3.6 per cent at its last meeting of the year<\/a> after delivering three cuts through 2025. Financial markets expect the cash rate to rise to 3.85 per cent by August.<\/p>\nBullock said during previous rate-cutting periods, commercial banks had not passed on in full reductions in the official cash rate. But the full three-quarter of a percentage point cut in rates had flowed through to borrowers.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve possibly got slightly easier financial conditions than we might have had in the past,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bullock said it appeared consumers were still reticent to spend consistently in a development that had caught the Reserve by surprise.<\/p>\n
While spending has lifted for big one-off events such as the recent concerts by AC\/DC, Oasis and Lady Gaga, Bullock said people were also \u201csocking\u201d away cash in offset and redraw accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s also true that people can splurge on big events, but I do think they tend to offset that a little bit by saying, \u2018I\u2019m doing that, so I\u2019m not going to do that\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Some critics argue the bank\u2019s struggle to keep inflation in its target band is due to federal and state government spending. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is expected to confirm a budget deficit this financial year of around $40 billion when he releases his mid-year fiscal update on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
![\"Australians](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5171b594250dd0b5a7b9e00fff6c452ea9a9696f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Australians may have splurged on a ticket to Taylor Swift, but they know all too well not to keep on spending.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bullock said while governments were conscious of inflation when setting their budgets, they faced numerous demands. The Reserve Bank had to remain focused on just one \u2013 keeping inflation under control.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any point in me telling governments what to do with fiscal policy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want them telling me what to do with monetary policy, so I think I\u2019m just not going to tell them what to do with fiscal policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
A key part of the Reserve\u2019s reforms has been regular press conferences. Bullock\u2019s predecessor, Philip Lowe, the first governor to hold press conferences, called them only to explain elements of the bank\u2019s extraordinary quantitative easing policies during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Bullock admits she\u2019s not a natural when it comes to media grilling but believes the conferences had now got into a \u201cnice rhythm\u201d. Some economists, however, are upset about the nature of the questions that the governor says often come from the angle of \u201cthe poor old person in the street\u201d.<\/p>\n
The governor is unapologetic about her approach, saying her words are aimed at ordinary Australians, including her parents, Nola and Ivan Droop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have tried to explain things in terms that I hope if anyone was listening, I\u2019ve tried to explain it so my mum would understand it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe and dad watch it. They actually watch it \u2013 they don\u2019t just listen to it.\u201c<\/p>\n
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAndrew often talks about, people said when Brexit was coming it was going to be a disaster. Well,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-349097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/eca285f98e00d2c59b3147f21748942680a1a739.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n