The Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold at its August policy meeting, stopping well short of joining other major central banks in talking about coming rate cuts and instead warning that inflation will remain a problem for some time yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The RBA’s official cash rate was held at a 12-year high of 4.35%, where it has remained since November.

A measure of inflation closely watched by Australian policymakers was lower than expected in the second quarter, taking pressure off the central bank to raise interest rates further at its policy meeting next week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trimmed mean inflation, which is a key focus for the Reserve Bank of Australia, rose 3.9% from a year earlier in the second quarter, beating the central bank’s forecast of 3.8%. Economists had expected trimmed mean inflation would rise by 4.0%.

Australia's banking regulator on Monday said it would retain its strict home loan lending rules amid concern that the level of overall risk to the financial system remained elevated, taking into account an uncertain interest rate and economic outlook, Reuters reported. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said that the outlook was clouded by geopolitical instability and household debt and inflation holding above the central bank's target range.

An Australian court rejected claims that Bayer AG’s weedkiller Roundup causes the cancer known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blow to efforts to bring class-action litigation there on the matter, even as the German company contends with thousands of similar claims in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. The Federal Court of Australia sided with Bayer in Thursday’s judgment, finding there was insufficient evidence that the herbicide increased the risk of developing the disease or caused it directly.

Four Australian banks will give back a total of A$28 million ($18.95 million) to low-income customers, after a review by the corporate regulator found these customers had been kept in high-fee bank accounts despite being eligible for cheaper products, Reuters reported. A report released by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on Monday said ANZ, Commonwealth Bank Of Australia, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Westpac had kept at least two million customers in accounts under which they charged high fees.

The threshold for involuntary bankruptcy will rise to $20,000 and bankrupts will have their official records cleared after seven years, under an overhaul of personal insolvency laws being unveiled on Monday, the Finanicial Review reported. The Albanese government will also extend the time frame for responding to a bankruptcy notice from 21 days to 28 days, and will scrap debt agreements as “an act of bankruptcy” under the legislation.

Higher interest rates have tightened financial conditions across Australia’s economy, but the pain is being felt differently between households and business, according to Chris Kent, assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a speech delivered to a banking conference in Melbourne, Kent added that while demand is rebalancing in the economy, the central bank still has a need to remain vigilant against the danger that inflation gathers renewed momentum over coming months.

The Reserve Bank of Australia continued to warn about ongoing inflation risks at its policy meeting on Tuesday, leaving open the potential for a further interest-rate increase if price pressures remain stubbornly high over coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported. As expected, the board of the RBA chose to keep the official cash rate steady at 4.35%, where it has sat since November. “Inflation is easing but has been doing so more slowly than previously expected and it remains high,” the RBA’s policy-setting board said in a statement.

Australia’s unemployment rate fell slightly in May, in line with a seasonal shift in the job market that saw more people starting work, the Wall Street Journal reported. Employment rose by 39,700 in the month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday, beating the expected rise of around 30,000. Economists consider the job market a point of resilience in the Australian economy, which otherwise continues to slow quickly due to the weight of elevated interest rates and rising costs. The unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 4.0% in May from April, the ABS said.