The Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark interest rate at the highest level in the developed world as consumer restraint and a strengthening currency tempered gains in inflation.

Governor Glenn Stevens held the overnight cash rate target at 4.75 percent Tuesday, as forecast by all 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Stevens told lawmakers in testimony less than three weeks ago the central bank is “ahead of the game” and signaled no urgency to increase borrowing costs.

The RBA, which raised rates seven times from October 2009 to November last year, is favoring growth over containing prices as the country recovers from flooding and cyclones in the northeast. Australia’s economic growth probably accelerated to 0.6 percent last quarter, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 25 economists before a report Wednesday. 

(Bloomberg)