Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said that the bank will raise it's "emergency" level overnight cash rate as the economy recovers from recession. At his half-yearly testimony given to parliament's finance committee, the 51-year old head of the RBA said "there will come a time when the exceptional monetary stimulus in place at present will no longer be needed." The hawkishly sharper rhetoric is a stark change from that which was given in the minute of their meeting five weeks ago. Perhaps the RBA is playing a game of chicken - at their latest meeting they revised their 2009 growth estimate up to 0.5% from a contraction of -1.0%. But it seems as though the market didn't buy it.
