New | Australia central bank holds rates steady for fifth month

Australia’s central bank left interest rates unchanged on Tuesday for a fifth straight month in a widely expected move and offered no clues to indicate it may change its steady stance any time soon.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept the cash rate at a record low 2.0 percent, where it has been since the last cut in May.

In a brief statement that was almost identical to the September note, the RBA reiterated that it would look to upcoming data to judge if the current policy setting needed to be adjusted.

"The available information suggests that moderate expansion in the economy continues," the RBA said.

"Overall, the economy is likely to be operating with a degree of spare capacity for some time yet, with domestic inflationary pressures contained."

Given this backdrop, the RBA said monetary policy needed to be accommodative, a view it has repeated in previous meetings.

The decision and an absence of any expressed anxiety about slowing growth in China, Australia’s single biggest export market, gave the currency a bit of a boost.