RBA already using macroprudential tools: Narev

Mr Narev’s comments come after AMP chief economist Shane Oliver highlighted the impact of the RBA’s jawboning.

“At the moment I suspect that they are secretly hoping that their jawboning efforts, which of course will include talking about macroprudential controls, might do the job for them,” Mr Oliver said.

“Indeed the last few weekends, while they have been complicated by grand finals in Sydney and Melbourne, have seen slower auction clearance rates,” he said.

“There are signs of a cooling off there.”

Speaking at the Commonwealth Bank fixed income conference in Sydney, the head of Australia’s biggest lender urged the government to use infrastructure projects to boost the supply of housing and rebalance the market.

Mr Narev’s comments were echoed by specialist lender and RedZed managing director Evan Dwyer, who said infrastructure projects would boost the economy at a time when some states are doing it tough.

“Victoria has probably been struggling for a bit longer than people think,” Mr Dwyer said.

“I suspect with the mining going the way it’s going and China starting to have some genuine issues, that it might not be a bad time for the government to have a look at the infrastructure pipeline and invest in a few programs to get things to kick along,” he said.