Australia’s central bank ready to act

Wider restrictions: A man riding his bike through an empty expressway in Sydney. News has been consistently bad as lockdowns spread from Sydney to the capital of Canberra, and a further 2,500km to the Northern Territory. — AFP

SYDNEY: Australia’s central bank would be prepared to take policy action should coronavirus lockdowns across the country threaten a deeper economic setback, minutes from its August meeting showed yesterday.

That outcome now looks ever more likely as the Delta variant spreads, piling pressure on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to delay a planned tapering of its bond buying programme, or even to ease.