In February 2021, to provide further support to the Australian economy as it recovered, the Board announced that it would purchase an additional $ billion of government bonds, after the first program was completed. Those purchases are underway now.
The policy actions taken to deliver low funding costs have had a number of complementary elements, and have been mutually reinforcing in underpinning low interest rates across the economy. Next, I will explain each of these actions in detail. Policy rate reduction The first policy action I will talk about is the reduction in the cash rate target.