The Reserve Bank of Australia’s deputy governor Guy Debelle delivered one of the most dovish speeches of his career during the week, which conceded that Martin Place was not remotely close to meeting its full employment, inflation and/or prosperity objectives legislated under the Reserve Bank Act.

Debelle made it clear that current monetary policy settings were inadequate, and much more needed to be done to support a massive federal fiscal policy program that is helping Australia recover from what he described as “the largest peacetime economic contraction since the 1930s”.