RBA Governor Bullock says board hopes to slow the economy the economy, sees upside risks to inflation; will raise rates again if needed

• Expects period of subdued economic growth will be required to bring inflation down.

Governor commentary of this kind, delivered between meetings, has historically served the RBA as a low-cost tightening instrument: jawboning the front end and the currency while preserving optionality on the actual cash rate decision. The framing here, explicitly willing to raise again and describing subdued growth as required rather than regrettable, is the hawkish end of the post-hike vocabulary; on previous occasions when the Bank has paired 'upside risks to inflation' with conditional tightening language, the board has more often than not followed through, though the timing has depended on the quarterly CPI rather than the monthly indicator. The distinction worth drawing is between rhetoric aimed at expectations and rhetoric aimed at the next decision: conditional phrasing like 'if needed' keeps both open, but naming the disinflation channel (slower growth, tolerated deliberately) signals the hurdle for another hike is lower than for a cut. The natural follow-ons are Deputy Governor and board member speeches adopting or softening the same tone, the quarterly inflation print as the binding data point, and any shift in the post-meeting statement's bias language. Transmission runs through the short end of the ACGB curve and AUD via the rate differential; remarks rather than decisions, so the signal is directional rather than schedulable.