The exchange rate In the last two or three years, the Reserve Bank has been acutely aware that its policies have been causing, or appearing to cause, the nation’s export farmers a whole lot of distress. Often, in despair, farmers would tell us that the rising dollar was driving them into the ground, and for some it was.
The unemployment rate declined substantially over the past year and stood at 4.0 percent in January, reaching the median of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants’ estimates of its longer-run normal level. The improvements in labor market conditions have been widespread, including for workers at the lower end of the wage distribution as well as for African Americans and Hispanics.