STATEMENT ON MONETARY POLICY – MAY 2006

List of tables

Text | Boxes

Table 1: World GDP

Table 2: Europe GDP

Table 3: Changes in Monetary Policy

Table 4: Changes in Major Country Share Prices

Table 5: Change in US Dollar against Other Currencies

Table 6: Demand and Output

Table 7: House Prices

Table 8: Labour Market by State

Table 9: Commodity Prices

Table 10: Financial Aggregates

Table 11: Non-government Bond Issuance by Sector

Table 12: Measures of Consumer Prices

Table 13: Output Prices at Different Stages of Production

Table 14: Median Inflation Expectations

Boxes

Table D1: Comparison of Household Saving Rates

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Table 2: Europe GDP
Percentage change

Euro area	0.7	0.3	1.8
– Germany	0.6	0.0	1.6
– France	0.7	0.4	1.5
– Italy	0.3	0.0	0.5
– Spain	0.9	0.9	3.5
– Netherlands	0.8	0.8	2.1
United Kingdom	0.5	0.6	1.8
Source: Thomson Financial

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Table 3: Changes in Monetary Policy

	Current level Per cent	Most recent change	Expectations for next 6 months
United States	4.75	Mar 06	↑ 50 bps
Euro area	2.50	Mar 06	↑ 50 bps
Japan	0.00	Mar 06	↑ 10–25 bps
United Kingdom	4.50	Aug 05	no change
Canada	4.00	Apr 06	↑ 25 bps
New Zealand	7.25	Dec 05	no change
Sources: central banks; Bloomberg; Reuters

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Table 4: Changes in Major Country Share Prices
Per cent

	Since 2000 peak	Since 2003 trough	2005	Since previous Statement
United States
– Dow Jones	–3	52	–1	5
– S&P 500	–14	64	3	4
– NASDAQ	–54	82	1	2
Euro area
– STOXX	–22	120	23	5
United Kingdom
– FTSE	–12	85	17	5
Japan
– TOPIX	–1	125	44	3
Canada
– TSE 300	8	97	22	5
Australia
– ASX 200	56	95	18	8
Source: Bloomberg

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Table 5: Change in US Dollar against Other Currencies

	Since USD peak Jan 2002	2005	Since last Statement
South Africa	–48	12	–1
New Zealand	–34	5	6
Australia	–33	6	–3
Euro area	–32	14	–5
Sweden	–31	19	–4
Canada	–31	–3	–3
South Korea	–29	–2	–3
Switzerland	–28	15	–5
United Kingdom	–23	11	–5
Indonesia	–16	6	–5
Thailand	–15	5	–5
Japan	–15	15	–5
Brazil	–15	–12	–5
Singapore	–14	2	–3
Taiwan	–9	3	–2
India	–7	4	1
Malaysia	–5	–1	–3
China	–3	–2	0
Philippines	1	–6	0
Mexico	20	–5	5
Majors TWI	–28	8	–5
Broad TWI	–17	3	–3
Source: RBA

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Table 6: Demand and Output
Percentage change

	March qtr 2005	June qtr 2005	September qtr 2005	December qtr 2005	Year to Dec qtr 2005
Domestic final demand	0.2	2.1	0.6	1.4	4.4
Change in inventories(a)	0.7	–0.2	–0.1	–0.3	0.1
GNE(b)	0.8	1.3	0.6	0.9	3.6
Net exports(a)	–0.1	–0.1	–0.4	–0.5	–1.1
GDP	0.7	1.3	0.3	0.5	2.7
Memo item:
Real GDP adjusted for	1.1	2.5	0.6	0.9	5.2
changes in terms of trade
(a) Contributions to GDP growth
(b) Includes the statistical discrepancy
Source: ABS

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Table 7: House Prices
Percentage change

	APM		REI		Residex		ABS
	Mar qtr 2006	Year to Mar qtr	Mar qtr 2006	Year to Mar qtr	Mar qtr 2006(a)	Year to March	Year to Dec qtr 2005
Sydney	–1.1	–3.8	..	..	–2.2	–3.5	–3.9
Melbourne	–1.1	0.9	–3.1	4.2	5.9	5.5	2.9
Brisbane	–1.1	0.5	..	..	1.7	4.9	3.5
Adelaide	1.7	3.4	–0.1	2.7	..	..	3.4
Perth	5.4	24.8	..	..	10.1	24.4	22.5
Canberra	–0.6	1.4	..	..	5.0	7.5	0.8
Australia	–0.1	1.7	..	..	3.4(b)	5.8(b)	2.3
(a) Three-month-ended
(b) Excludes Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin
Sources: ABS; APM; state REIs; RBA; Residex

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Table 8: Labour Market by State
Per cent

	Employment growth		Unemployment rate
	March qtr 2006	Year-ended March qtr 2006	March qtr 2005	March qtr 2006
NSW	0.2	1.2	5.3	5.3
Victoria	0.4	1.3	5.5	5.3
Queensland	0.4	1.7	4.6	5.3
WA	0.8	3.7	4.8	4.1
SA	0.2	1.3	5.4	5.2
Tasmania	0.1	2.9	5.7	6.5
Australia	0.3	1.6	5.1	5.2
Source: ABS

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Table 9: Commodity Prices
Percentage change; SDR

	Three months to April 2006	Year to April 2006
RBA Index	5.8	26.5
Rural	3.5	16.1
– Wheat	10.9	29.1
– Beef & veal	–2.9	0.0
– Wool	6.7	–1.5
Base metals	21.5	56.2
– Aluminium	9.8	44.2
– Copper	34.6	96.4
– Nickel	23.0	16.2
Other resources	1.8	21.8
– Coking coal(a)	–4.7	95.0
– Steaming coal(a)	–4.8	6.6
– Iron ore(a)	–4.1	66.2
– Gold	10.9	48.3
Memo item
Oil in US$(b)	6.6	31.3
(a) Latest available data are for February.
(b) Oil prices are not included in the RBA Index.
Sources: ABS; AWB; AWEX; Bloomberg; Meat and Livestock Australia; RBA

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Table 10: Financial Aggregates
Percentage change

	Average monthly growth
	September quarter 2005	December quarter 2005	March quarter 2006
Total credit	0.9	1.1	1.3
Household	0.8	1.0	1.2
– Housing	0.7	1.0	1.2
– Personal	0.8	0.4	1.0
Business	1.0	1.2	1.5
Broad money	0.5	0.1	0.6
Source: RBA

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Table 11: Non-government Bond Issuance by Sector
$ billion

Sector	2003	2004	2005	March quarter 2006
Bond issues by Australian entities
Onshore
Financial institutions	9.9	14.3	20.9	4.5
Non-financial corporates	5.6	8.0	9.3	1.9
Asset-backed	20.7	25.0	32.2	7.9
Total	36.1	47.3	62.4	14.3
Offshore
Financial institutions	51.5	64.9	52.0	25.4
Non-financial corporates	14.7	13.6	16.5	0.6
Asset-backed	24.3	29.8	25.6	6.2
Total	90.5	108.2	94.2	32.2
Total	126.6	155.5	156.6	46.4
A$ bond issues by non-resident entities
Onshore	7.1	21.3	26.2	15.9
Offshore	24.8	21.5	11.9	3.7
Total	31.9	42.9	38.1	19.6
Source: RBA

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Table 12: Measures of Consumer Prices
Percentage change

	Quarterly		Year-ended
	December quarter 2005	March quarter 2006	December quarter 2005	March quarter 2006
CPI	0.5	0.9	2.8	3.0
– Tradables	0.0	0.8	2.0	2.8
– Tradables (ex food and petrol)	–0.5	0.4	–0.3	0.3
Non-tradables	0.8	0.9	3.5	3.1
Underlying measures
Weighted median(a)	0.7	0.7	2.6	2.8
Trimmed mean(a)	0.5	0.8	2.3	2.6
CPI ex volatile items(b)	0.4	0.8	2.3	2.2
(a) Based on the distribution of seasonally adjusted quarterly price changes.
(b) Volatile items are fruit, vegetables and petrol.
Sources: ABS; RBA

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Table 13: Output Prices at Different Stages of Production
Percentage change

	March quarter 2006	Year to March quarter 2006
Preliminary	1.6	8.6
– Domestically produced	1.5	7.5
– Imported	2.7	16.3
– Excluding oil	1.4	5.6
Intermediate	1.5	6.9
– Domestically produced	1.4	6.3
– Imported	2.8	11.5
– Excluding oil	1.3	4.9
Final(a)	0.8	3.8
– Domestically produced	0.7	4.1
– Imported	0.8	2.0
– Excluding oil	0.7	3.1
(a) Excluding exports
Sources: ABS; RBA

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Table 14: Median Inflation Expectations
Per cent

	Year to December 2006			Year to December 2007
	November 2005	February 2006	May 2006	February 2006	May 2006
Market economists(a)	2.6	2.8	2.9	2.6	2.6
Union officials(b)	3.5	3.0	3.3	3.0	3.2
(a) RBA survey
(b) Workplace Research Centre

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