RBA to remain on hold at next week's policy meet

The Reserve Bank of Australia is set to release its third policy statement for 2016 on Tuesday, 5th April and markets largely expect the central bank to leave the official cash rate unchanged at its record low of 2.00%, where it has been since May 2015.

Policy makers judged at their meeting on March 1 that it was appropriate to leave the cash rate unchanged at an accommodative setting as the economy rebalances away from mining-led investment. They reiterated that continued low inflation would provide scope to ease monetary policy further, if needed.

"We expect the central bank to lower its official cash rate in the future only if core inflation continues to move downward and if the economic growth statistics disappoint. Also, if unemployment and GDP growth fail to improve over the coming months, another cut will probably occur sooner rather than later." said ANZ economists.