Listening to Australians: A New RBA Survey of the Community

Transcript

The RBA has launched a new community survey to learn more about how Australians experience and understand the economy, and how they view the RBA. We’ve done this because the RBA is here to serve Australians. That purpose guides our work, and it means we need to listen carefully to the community.

The survey started in early 2025 and since then we have heard from about 9,000 Australians from across the country. We have designed the survey to capture views from a diverse group of people, reflecting different perspectives and experiences across the community.

It may not be surprising, but around two-thirds of Australians in our survey responded that inflation has been their biggest economic concern recently. And that result was similar across age, gender and income groups. We know high inflation affects all Australians, and the survey just reinforces that. And that is why the RBA’s role in keeping inflation low and stable matters.

About 75 per cent of the people we surveyed recognised that the RBA is responsible for keeping inflation low and stable, and uses interest rates to do this. But the survey also shows there are some knowledge gaps. Only about 25 per cent of the people we surveyed knew that the RBA also aims to support full employment in the economy. This is the other important part of the RBA’s monetary policy dual mandate, alongside price stability.

So, while general awareness of the RBA is quite high, understanding of the breadth of the RBA’s responsibilities is more limited. That matters because when people understand what we are trying to achieve, it is easier to understand why certain decisions are being made.

The survey shows that Australians have a varied understanding of how the economy works, including the role that interest rates play. Many people recognised that higher interest rates tend to slow the economy, which is an important part of how monetary policy works. But it’s just the first step. The link between interest rates and inflation which is actually one of the end goals wasn’t as clear for some.

Fewer people recognised that higher interest rates help bring inflation down over time. In fact, more than half of the people we surveyed thought that higher interest rates would increase inflation. Now that finding is not unique to Australia. Researchers overseas have seen similar results, which points to a broader challenge in explaining how monetary policy works. While higher interest rates work to reduce inflation over time through several mechanisms, there is less understanding off this in the community.

It matters because it can shape how people interpret monetary policy decisions. For example, if someone expects higher interest rates to increase inflation, then a decision to raise the cash rate when inflation is high could seem difficult to understand, and probably counterintuitive.

Trust is important for all central banks, not just the RBA. It is essential because it supports effective monetary policy, helps safeguard the Bank’s independence, and underpins confidence in its core functions. Across the survey waves, trust in the RBA has been fairly steady. When we asked people to rate their trust in the Bank on a scale from zero to 10, the median answer was six. And around three-quarters of people gave a score of five or more.

We’ll be watching this figure over time to monitor the public’s trust in the RBA, but we do know that trust in the RBA is broadly in line with similar regulatory organisations in Australia and with other central banks overseas.

Well, one key finding from the survey was that 70 per cent of the people we heard from said they wanted to learn more about the economy. And importantly, that includes people who don’t currently feel very confident in their understanding of how the economy works. So efforts to build economic literacy here could have a real impact. The survey results will help the RBA to keep improving the way it communicates with the community.

That means giving clearer explanations, and providing more accessible information on the topics people want to know about.

The RBA will continue to run this survey every six months, so that we can track how the views and experiences of Australians change over time. This will help us keep improving how we communicate, and make sure our explanations reflect what Australians want to know about the economy and the RBA’s role in it. This survey is about listening carefully to the community, so we can better explain our work and continue serving Australians.