A slowdown in economic growth, increasing productivity, and signs wages growth had peaked forced the Reserve Bank to jettison its tightening bias, the central bank’s former chief economist, Luci Ellis, says.

“The risks that would cause them to hold for longer, or let alone increase [the cash rate], are just fading away as the data flow comes through, and I think it was just a recognition of the reality,” Dr Ellis told The Australian Financial Review.