Australia holds rates

Australia's central bank left interest rates at record lows on Tuesday, as expected, and sounded less confident that the economy would grow at 3 percent or more this year, in another sign rates will likely remain on hold for months to come. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) expects the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to "grow faster in 2018 than it did in 2017", as it entirely removed reference to expectations of "above 3 percent" growth over the next couple of years.
The change in rhetoric comes as analysts downgrade forecasts for fourth-quarter GDP, due Wednesday. A Reuters poll of analysts last week showed economists expect GDP to have expanded by 0.6 percent on quarter and 2.5 percent on year in the December quarter. However, recent soft indicators have prompted analysts to trim these expectations to rises of around 0.5 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.