Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Suicide Prevention Australia chief executive Nieves Murray who fears more people are suffering from cost-of-living and interest rate pressures.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
A key worry for the RBA has been a lift in wage growth.
Lowe said while wages were picking up,and the bank remained “alert” to a possible price-wage spiral,the indications at present were positive.
“At the aggregate level,wages growth is still consistent with the inflation target and recent data suggest a lower risk of a cycle in which prices and wages chase one another,” he said.
Measures of consumer confidence and wellbeing have been falling for several months.
Fears over housing affordability and unemployment were growing for many Australians,particularly middle-income and middle-aged people. The cost of living,housing affordability and unemployment are now all ranked higher as suicide risks than social isolation and relationship breakdown.
There has also been a lift in the number of people reporting serious thoughts of suicide,which reached 16 per cent,with sharp increases in NSW and Victoria.
Deloitte Access Economics head Pradeep Philip said the Reserve Bank’s rate actions were increasing the chance of an Australian recession.
“Given interest rates attack inflation from the demand side,they are not fully effective in fighting inflation being driven by supply-side issues. Unfortunately,the RBA has few other tools at its disposal to help fight inflation and has indicated further rate lifts are to come,” he said.
“We need to take a holistic look at ways to tame inflation,which necessitates a greater role for fiscal policy. In the meantime,the RBA should pause rate hikes,or it will overshoot and cruel the economy.”
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The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the bank should not go through with another rate rise at its April meeting,warning that the business sector was starting to struggle.
“With too much hidden leverage around,the Reserve Bank must pause at its next meeting and take stock of whether rates are sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation back down to target,” chamber chief executive Andrew McKellar said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said even though the rate rise was expected,it would still sting for many Australians.
In a speech in Sydney on Tuesday evening,Chalmers revealed he would release next week a major Productivity Commission report into ways to lift the economy,saying it would show there had to be more connections between government and businesses across a larger range of issues.
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The transition to a renewable energy network,the rise of artificial intelligence and digitalisation would be the driving forces of improved productivity.
“Every one of the themes in the report ... requires a more central,more constructive role for business and for investors,” he toldTheAustralian Financial Review’s Business Summit.
“By and large over the last decade,you’ve picked these trends – the threats and the opportunities that come with them – well before they were acknowledged or addressed by government. Our success rests in large part on a thriving,profitable,successful,wealth-creating,opportunity-generating private sector.”
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said government policy was undermining the Reserve Bank’s efforts.
“It is clear the government is not doing enough to make the Reserve Bank’s job easier. Australians are now facing a full-blown cost-of-living crisis and yet it’s the last thing the prime minister wants to talk about,” he said.
Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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