As many of you would understand from first-hand experience, forecasting is always difficult, but especially so over the past couple of years. Nevertheless, as I noted in a speech last month, forecasting is an important part of our monetary policy process since the RBA Board needs to form a view on how its policy decisions might impact the economy and inflation in the future.
I will start with a look back at where our forecasts stood in August and then highlight the areas in which subsequent developments have impacted the forecasts. I will then set out our current forecasts for inflation, growth and employment.