Collectively, these changes will help with cost-of-living pressures and free up income to spend on other things. From this perspective, these changes are good news. So these are some of the main issues we have been working our way through. As you are aware, the Reserve Bank Board has held the cash rate steady at 1½ per cent since August 2016.
This setting of monetary policy is helping support economic growth, allowing for further progress to be made in reducing the unemployment rate and returning inflation towards the midpoint of the target range. We have not sought to fine-tune outcomes, but rather to be a source of stability and confidence as the economy moves along this path.