The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has decided to maintain the cash rate at 0.1 percent and end its bond purchase program on Feb. 10 at the first board meeting of 2022. “As the Board has stated previously, it will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2 to 3 percent target range,” RBA Governor Philip Lowe said in the monetary policy decision statement. “While inflation has picked up, it is too early to conclude that it is sustainably within the target band.” While inflation increased faster than the RBA expected, uncertainties remained on how persistent the pick-up inflation will be once supply issues are resolved and wages growth also remains modest, Lowe said. The RBA forecasts that underlying inflation, currently at 2.6 percent, will further increase to around 3.25 percent before falling to 2.75 percent over 2023 once supply-side problems are fixed and consumption …