The main decision made by the Board at that meeting back in 1968 was that Dr Coombs recommend to the Treasurer that he adjust the interest rates on trading bank fixed deposits and saving bank deposits by a quarter of a per cent. From today’s perspective, this is remarkable on two levels.
First, the RBA was just making a recommendation to the government – this was obviously before the days of central bank independence. Second, monetary policy was exercised partly through direct controls on bank deposit rates. So, it was a very different world. Today, the Board makes its decisions independently of government and we don’t directly control bank interest rates for households and businesses.