How many times the Board meets
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Monetary Policy Board meets 8 times a year. The meetings follow the release of key economic data on inflation and economic activity. The RBA describes the meeting format as beginning on a Monday afternoon and ending the following day. The Board publishes its meeting dates.
For 2026, the scheduled dates are 2–3 February, 16–17 March, 4–5 May, 15–16 June, 10–11 August, 28–29 September, 2–3 November and 7–8 December. The schedule communicates spacing through dated meeting pairs. It supplies the timing of decisions, not their outcomes.
Each scheduled meeting can end with a change or no change. The RBA does not mark the 2026 dates in advance as move meetings or hold meetings. A prior decision also does not assign a result to the next date. The schedule is an event calendar. The Board’s assessment at the meeting supplies the cash-rate decision.
Why the Board holds instead of moving
A hold appears in the RBA decision table as a 0.00 percentage-point change. The cash rate target remains at its preceding level. The meeting is not skipped. The Board still assesses policy, the inflation target and the employment objective.
Since the early 1990s, the RBA’s objectives have found practical expression in a consumer price inflation target of 2–3 per cent per annum. The framework also balances the Bank’s full employment objective. The full employment level is not observable. It requires the Board’s expert judgement, supported by analysis from RBA staff.
Before each meeting, staff prepare a detailed account of developments in the Australian and international economies. They also assess domestic and international financial markets. The papers contain a recommendation for the policy decision. The Board then makes the decision.
The RBA states:
“The flexibility contained within this framework allows the Board to look through short-term deviations of inflation from this range, thereby avoiding fine tuning of monetary policy that would be unhelpful for the economic prosperity and welfare of Australians.”
That flexibility is the stated basis for tolerating short-term deviations. It is permission to look through a deviation, not an instruction to disregard the broader inflation objective.
Price stability and full employment are often complementary. The same policy setting will often be appropriate for both objectives. If the Board judges that they cannot be met simultaneously, it must balance them. The RBA says the Board communicates how it is balancing the objectives, how long it expects each objective will take to achieve and why.
A hold is therefore an active decision within the framework. It can reflect a judgement that the existing setting remains appropriate across the Board’s objectives. The framework described by the RBA does not specify a fixed number of holds or a fixed hold period. Each decision remains tied to the available evidence and the Board’s assessment.
The 2026 record: four moves, two holds
The RBA cash rate target table records 6 decisions from the February meeting through the September meeting in 2026. Four of the 6 meetings raised the target. Two held it.
The effective-date record shows the sequence. On 4 February, the target increased by 0.25 percentage points to 3.85 per cent. On 18 March, it increased by 0.25 percentage points to 4.10 per cent. On 6 May, it increased by 0.25 percentage points to 4.35 per cent.
On 17 June, the recorded change was 0.00 and the target remained 4.35 per cent. On 12 August, the recorded change was again 0.00 and the target remained 4.35 per cent. On 30 September, it increased by 0.25 percentage points to 4.60 per cent.
All four moves were increases of 25 basis points. Both holds occurred at a 4.35 per cent target. This is the completed record through the September meeting. It is not a recurring sequence and does not assign an outcome to a later meeting.
Why meeting frequency cannot be predicted
The RBA’s 29 September statement describes the Board’s reaction function:
“The Board will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target, including increasing the cash rate target further if needed.”
The RBA also directed attention to the data and the evolving assessment of the outlook and risks. It said the Board remained focused on ensuring that high inflation did not become embedded.
Those statements make the decision conditional. The Board assesses the inflation target, the employment objective and the evolving outlook. Its flexible framework permits it to look through short-term deviations. The framework also requires a balancing judgement when the objectives cannot be met simultaneously.
The meeting calendar identifies when that assessment occurs. It does not identify the result. A scheduled date cannot establish whether the target will move or hold. The published 2026 sequence of four increases and two holds is historical evidence, not a fixed cadence.
The absence of a predictable change frequency is not an irregular meeting pattern to be filled with estimates. It follows from the RBA’s data-dependent reaction function. Decisions depend on the evidence available, the assessment of the outlook and risks, and the balance struck between inflation and employment.
Any attempt to derive the next decision solely from the number of prior moves or the gap since the last meeting would go beyond the Board’s published guidance. The RBA supplies the schedule and the reasons for each decision. It does not pre-label the next decision in that schedule.
A borrower’s review calendar without a forecast
A borrower can use each published meeting date as a review checkpoint. At that checkpoint, the review can record the cash rate target, the Board’s decision and the stated reasons for it. The review can also record how the Board has balanced inflation and full employment.
This is an event-based process. It records what occurred at a scheduled meeting without assigning a target to the next one. No assumed rate path is required. A hold does not remove the following meeting from the calendar. An increase does not make the following meeting a move meeting.
The listed 2–3 November and 7–8 December dates provide later review points for the 2026 calendar. The schedule attaches no move-or-hold designation to either date. Their role is to mark when the Board is scheduled to assess policy again.
Keeping the meeting date and the policy outcome separate preserves the distinction between a known event and an uncertain result. The borrower’s record can contain the target, the decision and the RBA’s explanation. It does not need to contain an expected next target.
This approach uses the RBA’s rhythm as a control point for reviewing published information. It treats past decisions as observations rather than signals. The output is an ordered policy record, not a forecast.
Common questions
When is a cash-rate decision announced, and when does a change take effect?
The RBA issues its media release at 2.30 pm after each Monetary Policy Board meeting. Any change in the cash rate target takes effect the following day.
When are the Chart Pack and Minutes released?
The RBA releases the Chart Pack the day after each Monetary Policy Board meeting. It releases the Minutes two weeks after each meeting.
How does the RBA communicate changes to its meeting schedule?
The RBA says any changes will be notified as far as possible in the weekly schedule. The weekly schedule is its stated notification channel for changed meeting dates.
Was the 29 September 2026 policy decision unanimous?
The RBA’s statement says, “Today’s policy decision was unanimous.” That designation applies to the decision made on 29 September 2026.
Can the RBA hold the cash rate target across several meetings?
The RBA decision table shows 7 consecutive holds at 4.35 per cent between 7 February 2024 and 8 November 2024. That sequence records past decisions only. It does not set the number or timing of future holds.