RBA cuts interest rates to more than 2-year lows

Published

3 weeks ago

August 12, 2025

Australia’s central bank said on Wednesday that monetary policy was restrictive with the current cash rate causing financial pain for many households, but it could not rule out further tightening if necessary to tame inflation.

Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rates by 25 basis points on Tuesday, while downgrading the annual economic outlook for the country.

The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced its economic growth forecast for the year to 1.7% from 2.1%, saying that a weaker-than-expected rise in public demand in early 2025 was unlikely to be offset through the rest of the year.

The country’s benchmark rates are now at 3.6%, the lowest since April 2023, and in line with expectations of economists polled by Reuters.

The RBA said that inflation had dropped “substantially” since the peak in 2022, with steeper interest rates bringing aggregate demand and potential supply “closer towards balance.”

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 equity index was up about 0.3% after the decision, while the Australian dollar weakened 0.15% to trade at 0.6501 against the greenback.

Inflation in Australia came in at 2.1% in the second quarter, its lowest since March 2021 and near the lower end of the RBA’s 2%-3% range.

Tuesday’s rate cut comes amid a drastically reshaped trade environment as U.S. tariffs have come into effect, as well as a less-than-expected economic growth in the first quarter.

Australia was hit with the baseline 10% tariff by U.S. President Donald Trump, which the country’s trade minister reportedly hailed as a “vindication” for the government’s negotiations.

The RBA said that the risk of a “very damaging” trade war has diminished, and “recent international trade policy developments have had little discernible impact on the Australian economy to date.” However, it warned that a more material disruption to global trade cannot be ruled out.

The lower GDP growth forecast is owed more to a lower outlook for productivity growth, instead of trade disruptions, the central bank said.

The country’s economy grew 1.3% year on year in the first quarter, lower than the estimated 1.5% growth in a Reuters poll. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy expanded 0.2%, undershooting expectations for a 0.4% growth.

Katherine Keenan, ABS head of national accounts, attributed the soft growth to shrinking public spending and weakened consumer demand and exports.

Analysts at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia forecast another rate cut in November, and see the possibility of one more in “early 2026.”

Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific at Capital Economics, expects rates to decline to 2.85% by the middle of 2026, based on the RBA’s reduced inflation forecast.

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Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq sink as Treasury yields jump amid tariff, Fed uncertainty – Yahoo Finance

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19 minutes ago

September 2, 2025

Rian Howlett

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‘Trump loses again’: California governor reacts to judge ruling that national guard in LA violated federal law – live | Trump administration

Published

54 minutes ago

September 2, 2025

Tom Ambrose

Newsom after judge ruling on national guard in LA: ‘Trump loses again’

California governor Gavin Newsom responded to his state’s federal court win that Trump’s deployment of national guard troops in Los Angeles this summer was illegal.

“DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN” Newsom posted on X. “The courts agree — his militarization of our streets and use of the military against US citizens is ILLEGAL.”

Key events

Rudy Giuliani has been discharged from the hospital and is “progressing well” following a car collision in New Hampshire on Saturday, his spokesperson Ted Goodman said.

“The mayor would like to thank the New Hampshire State Police, paramedics, Elliot Hospital, and all the physicians and nurses who provided incredible care” Goodman added.

Newsom after judge ruling on national guard in LA: ‘Trump loses again’

California governor Gavin Newsom responded to his state’s federal court win that Trump’s deployment of national guard troops in Los Angeles this summer was illegal.

“DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN” Newsom posted on X. “The courts agree — his militarization of our streets and use of the military against US citizens is ILLEGAL.”

Trump plans to move Space Command headquarters to Alabama from Colorado, sources tell Reuters

According to Reuters, the Trump administration is planning to announce that it will relocate the headquarters of US Space Command from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama, sources familiar with the deliberations told the outlet.

The decision is a reversal of the Biden administration’s choice in 2023, when Colorado Springs was selected as the permanent home for the military’s newest combatant command after an extensive review process.

Space Command currently operates from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs on an interim basis, where it has been headquartered since its reestablishment under Trump in 2019.

A live streaming link ahead of the 2pm ET Trump announcement posted by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), the US military’s official media distribution arm, describes the event as a “US Space Command HQ Announcement”.

Trump illegally deployed national guard during LA immigration protests, judge rules

A Washington judge has found that Trump illegally deployed National Guard troops during immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles this summer.

Judge Charles Breyer ruled that sending military personnel alongside immigration agents violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the armed forces from domestic law enforcement. California brought the legal challenge against the federal government.

The Trump administration argued the troops were only protecting federal officers, not conducting arrests themselves. The judge did not order the remaining military personnel to be withdrawn.

Nadler is one of the most influential House Democrats in office, and represents a high-profile Manhattan district steeped in prominent fundraising and media attention.

A member of the progressive caucus, the 78-year-old built a reputation as a reliable voice on issues like abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, and government accountability.

Unlike Democratic party leaders and New Yorkers Hakeem Jeffries and senator Chuck Schumer, Nadler endorsed Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani ahead of the general election.

Democratic representative Jerry Nadler won’t seek re-election

New York representative Jerry Nadler officially announced that he will relinquish his seat next election after serving over three decades in Congress.

“This decision has not been easy” he wrote in the statement. “But I know in my heart it is the right one and that it is the right time to pass the torch to a new generation”.

There are murmurs that instead the “exciting announcement” will be about renaming the Department of Defense to the “Department of War” – it’s former name previously discontinued in 1947.

A number of news outlets reported ahead of Labor Day that the White House had been working up plans for the reverted name, citing a White House official.

In his latest posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!”

In late August, Pentagon sources told the Washington Post and Rolling Stone that planning was actively underway for a national guard operation in Chicago, though no final decision had been announced.

When asked at the time, a Pentagon official told the Guardian “we won’t speculate on further operations” and that the department is “continuously working” with other agencies on “plans to protect federal assets and personnel”.

It’s still unclear what the announcement will touch on, but the White House rapid response team shared a Trump post from Truth Social this morning saying that “Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far’” and added “[governor JB] Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet”.

“I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC”, he wrote.

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Trump National Guard California Newsom

Published

2 hours ago

September 2, 2025

Dan Mangan

The National Guard, police and protesters stand off outside of a downtown jail in Los Angeles following two days of clashes with police during a series of immigration raids on June 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

A federal judge on Tuesday barred President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard and other military troops in California to execute law-enforcement actions there, including making arrests, searching locations, and crowd control.

The ruling came in connection with a lawsuit filed in early June by the state of California challenging Trump’s and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s deployment of the Guard to deal with protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

Judge Charles Breyer said that Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and 700 Marines to L.A. violated the federal Posse Comitatus Act, which bars U.S. Military forces from enforcing the law domestically.

Breyer’s ruling in U.S. District Court in San Francisco is limited to California, and the judge stayed the decision until Sept. 12 to give the Trump administration time to appeal it.

But it comes as Trump has considered deploying National Guard troops to other U.S. cities to deal with crime, including Oakland and San Francisco.

Breyer warned that it would create “a national police force with the President as its chief.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom gloated about the ruling in a social media post.

“DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN,” Newsom wrote on X.

“The courts agree — his militarization of our streets and use of the military against US citizens is ILLEGAL.”

Breyer, in his ruling,g wrote, “Congress spoke clearly in 1878 when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law.”

“Nearly 140 years later, Defendants — President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense — deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced,” the judge wrote.

“There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence,” Breyer wrote.

“Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”

Breyer said that evidence introduced during a trial for the lawsuit shows that the defendants had “systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles.”

CNBC has requested comment on the ruling from the Justice Department, which represented the Trump administration in the lawsuit.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

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