The RBA’s interest rate-rising looks done – and a soft landing for the economy could be on

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and his successor Michele Bullock. The RBA left its interest rate on hold for a third straight month amid signs of the desired soft landing. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

As two of Australia’s more contentious figures, Philip Lowe and Alan Joyce, head towards their gilded departure lounges, the economy seems set in a holding pattern with improving prospects of a desired soft landing.

To be sure, a happy outcome of a jobless rate remaining within cooee of 4%, wages finally catching – if not outpacing – inflation and even the federal budget staying in the black a bit longer is far from assured.