These hearings are a central part of the accountability process for the Reserve Bank of Australia. As usual, my colleagues and I will do our best to answer your questions and to explain how we are discharging our important responsibilities on behalf of the Australian community.
Later this morning we will be releasing a full set of updated forecasts in our quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy. Ahead of that I would like to highlight the main numbers and some of the factors that are influencing the outlook. I will then turn to monetary policy and finish with some remarks about the RBA’s payments system responsibilities.