The Australia 200 trades\u00a029 points (0.33%) higher at 8873 as of 3.15pm\u00a0 AEST.<\/p>\n
The Australia 200 (ASX 200)<\/a>\u00a0has surged to a fresh record high of 8880.20 this afternoon after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut interest rates<\/a> by 25 basis points (bp)<\/a> to 3.60% and hinted at more rate cuts to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n RBA signals continued easing as inflation moderates<\/p>\n The RBA noted progress on inflation<\/a>, with its updated staff forecasts suggesting that underlying inflation will continue to moderate to around the midpoint of the 2% to 3% range.<\/p>\n The RBA also acknowledged downside risks<\/a> to growth, stating, ‘There is a risk that consumption growth is a little slower than expected, which could weigh on overall demand and lead to weaker labour market conditions.’ As a result, the RBA revised its gross domestic product (GDP)<\/a> projection for December 2025 lower to 1.7% from 2.1%.<\/p>\n The RBA\u2019s forecast for the unemployment rate was left unchanged at 4.3% by year\u2019s end, although this seems slightly optimistic given that the unemployment rate is already at that level and the economy is slowing. This assumption will come under scrutiny on Thursday when the July labour force report is released.<\/p>\n The decision to cut rates was unanimous, and assuming inflation continues to moderate, it is expected that the cash rate will ‘follow a gradual easing path,’ reinforcing the RBA\u2019s cautious easing bias.<\/p>\n Key economic releases to determine future rate cuts<\/p>\n Ahead of the next RBA Board meeting in seven weeks on 30 September, several key data releases will help determine whether the RBA will cut by another 25 bp to 3.35% in September or wait until November, which is the more likely scenario.<\/p>\n These releases include:<\/p>\n Second quarter (Q2) GDP on Wednesday, 3 September Following the RBA decision, the Australian interest rate market is almost fully priced for additional 25 bp rate cuts in November and March 2026, which would bring the cash rate back to around 3.10%, considered near ‘neutral,’ where rates are neither restrictive nor expansionary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australia 200 trades\u00a029 points (0.33%) higher at 8873 as of 3.15pm\u00a0 AEST. The Australia 200 (ASX 200)\u00a0has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,63,99,171],"class_list":{"0":"post-62156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62156","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=62156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWestpac<\/a> consumer confidence on Wednesday, 10 September
\nNational Australia Bank (NAB)<\/a> business confidence on Wednesday, 10 September
\nLabour force report for August\u00a0 on\u00a0Thursday, 18 September
\nMonthly consumer price index (CPI)<\/a> indicator on Wednesday, 24 September<\/p>\n