West Pacific expects the RBA to cut interest rates twice before February next year and advance its forecast for the central bank to cut interest rates.
Bill Evans, chief economist at West Pacific, said he expects the RBA to cut interest rates during the October meeting, compared to the previous forecast for November.
He said that the next workforce report of the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be the key, which will be announced on August 15.
“By October, we expect the unemployment rate to be strong enough to deviate from the RBA’s expectations, giving them reason to adopt a easing policy earlier than we had expected,” he said.
“We think the September meeting may be ‘fun’, but RBA is expected to wait for more data, such as the economic data for the June quarter to decide on the next move”
West Pacific also lowered its final interest rate forecast from 0.75% to 0.5%.
It said that overnight cash rates are likely to hit 0.5% in February 2020.
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