Howard relieved: RBA keeps rates steady

Australia's central bank today kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a six-year high after consumer prices fell for the first time in eight years.

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens left the overnight cash rate target at 6.25 percent after raising it a quarter percentage point in November to stem inflation. All 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expected no change today.

The bank's three interest-rate increases since May have cooled consumer spending and stalled a housing recovery, slowing the Asia- Pacific region's fifth-largest economy as it enters a 16th year of expansion. Falling fuel and fruit costs drove down consumer prices at the end of 2006, dousing expectations of another rate increase this year.