Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meeting surprised markets by showing policymakers were considering temporarily halting the policy tightening cycle at the December policy meeting.
With consideration for a 25 basis point and 50 basis point increase, there are policymakers who support a pause in rate hikes.
Even so, because the RBA is still trying to fight inflation, the central bank decided to raise interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.10%.
This is the first time in the eight months that tightening has been underway that policymakers have proposed a 'break' in rate hikes.
Taking a closer look at the report published in the Asian session, the RBA predicted that inflation would take several years to return to the 2% target even if they continued to tighten.
However, the central bank still stands by its position to extend interest rate hikes by repeating its previous statement that it will be determined by incoming data.
Meanwhile, the minutes also indicate that policymakers see considerable uncertainty for the economic outlook with the timing and extent of a possible slowdown in household spending still unclear.
The RBA has raised rates by 3 percentage points since May as it grapples with the fastest inflation in more than three decades.
The central bank, however, was the first to move towards slower policy tightening in October.
