Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has been holidaying in Hobart, days after the central bank raised interest rates for the fourth time this year.
Bullock was seen at The Den in Salamanca on Monday night.
Bullock is on leave and missed last week’s meeting of the Council of Financial Regulators, where the RBA was represented by Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser.
The RBA’s Monetary Policy Board unanimously raised the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.6% on September 29.
The board said inflation remained elevated, with the conflict in the Middle East pushing global energy prices well above its August forecasts.
It said higher fuel prices were being passed on to the prices of other goods and services and that recent inflation figures had been stronger than expected.
The board also noted house prices had fallen in most capital cities and that new housing loans had declined noticeably.
Asked after the decision whether government spending was making the RBA’s job harder, Bullock said both public and private demand were adding to inflation.
“I’m not here to play a blame game. The bottom line is that there are a number of pressures all bearing down inflation at the moment,” she said.
“Our job is to focus on what we can do to bring inflation down.”
The board said it would continue to do what it considered necessary to bring inflation back to target.
