The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday kept its official cash rate unchanged at 2% as focus shifts today to the Bank of England.
The Bank of England is also expected to keep its lending rate unchanged at 0.5% as it awaits the first move from the United States Federal Reserve.
RBA governor Glenn Stevens said the global economy was expanding at a moderate pace, but some key commodity prices were much lower than a year ago.
''Much of this trend appears to reflect increased supply, including from Australia. Australia's terms of trade are falling nonetheless.''
The Federal Reserve was expected to start increasing its policy rate later this year, but some other major central banks were continuing to ease policy, he said.
Global financial conditions remained ''very accommodative''.
Despite fluctuations in markets associated with the respective developments in China and Greece, long-term borrowing rates for most sovereigns and creditworthy private borrowers remained remarkably low, Mr Stevens said.
In Australia, the available information suggested the economy had continued to grow.
While the rate of growth had been below longer-term averages, it had been associated with stronger growth of employment and a steady rate of unemployment over the past year.
Overall, the economy was likely to be operating with a degree of spare capacity for some time yet.
Recent information confirmed domestic inflationary pressures had been contained, and should remain so, given the very slow growth in labour costs.
Inflation was forecast to remain consistent with the target over the next one to two years, even with a lower exchange rate, Mr Stevens said.
The Australian dollar rose against the US currency after the announcement at 4.30pm New Zealand time.
