RBA appoints assistant governor

The Reserve Bank of Australia said it had considered a “competitive field of internal and external candidates” for the role as assistant governor (financial system) following Michele Bullock’s promotion to deputy governor.

Ms Bullock stepped into assistant governor (financial system) in April, replacing ex-deputy governor Guy Debelle, marking the first female deputy governor in its 62-year history.

In his new position, Dr Jones will oversee the Reserve Bank’s work on financial system stability and its role in payments system oversight and regulation.

Dr Jones joined the Reserve Bank in 2018 as head of the international department and most recently was head of the economic analysis department, after a five-year stint in Washington D.C. working at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

At the IMF he served in the monetary and capital markets department where he was responsible for research and leading missions in the areas of financial stability and central bank asset and liability management.

Previously, he held senior macro-economic research and global macro trading responsibilities over a period of around nine years in Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets business in London and Hong Kong.

Dr Jones holds a PhD in finance from Macquarie University, served for five years as a fellow at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, and has published extensively on a wide range of topics related to financial stability, monetary policy and international financial markets.

He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a signatory to The Banking and Finance Oath.

RBA expects to consider 25 or 50-bp rate hike

During an address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia on Tuesday (21 June), RBA governor Philip Lowe commented the Reserve Bank was tossing up increasing the cash rate by either 25 or 50 bps for July, off the back of inflation now expected to peak around 7 per cent in December.

In early May, the central bank had only expected inflation to top out at 6 per cent by the end of the year.

Governor Lowe said they had decided on the higher 50-bp increase because interest rates remained very low for an economy experiencing high inflation.

The governor added that he expects a similar discussion to take place next month, as the minutes have confirmed that there are further steps to come over the months ahead.

“We’re not, as I said in my prepared remarks, we’re not on a preset path,” he said.

“We’re going to look at the data we have each month and the level of interest rates and the inflation. But I expect that next month we’ll be having the same discussion at our board meeting: 25 or 50.”

[Related: RBA names next deputy governor]