Australia's central bank stresses policy patience as peers push to tighten

Australia's central bank on Friday sharply revised up its outlook for inflation while projecting unemployment at 50-year lows, yet was still content to keep policy super loose as it seeks a lasting recovery in wages and living standards.

Yet that stoic stance is becoming harder to sustain as its global peers turn more strident on inflation and financial markets howl for near-term rate hikes.

In its quarterly statement on monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said that the firmer outlook for inflation meant its policy goals might be met sooner than previously thought, opening the door to an