Call it subtlety or caution, but the Reserve Bank – and especially governor Michele Bullock – is rarely very blunt (even if interest rates are).

On Tuesday, there was a change: not in interest rates – which stayed on hold – but in the way the bank was getting its message across.

It’s much easier for the bank to send a clearer message when it has a clearer idea about where the biggest risks are.Credit: Matt Davidson

For a start, its monetary policy statement – which lays out the bank’s thinking and the reasons for its latest decision – was short (I took a leaf out of my colleague Shane Wright’s book and count: it was 502 words, to be exact).

That wouldn’t have been unusual a decade or two ago, but it’s the shortest statement in at least three years. The average length of its statements over that time has been closer to 700 words.

That in itself doesn’t tell us a lot: it might simply mean there was little to add to what we already know. But it also suggests the bank is not as worried (it’s a little too soon for Bullock and her board to completely forget about the fate of her predecessor) about cushioning its statements with caveats as it has been over the past few years.

Sure, the bank still sprinkles a dose of caution through its statement, saying it will “be attentive to the data” and “pay close attention” to developments. But if there is one thing the Reserve Bank has been consistent with, especially under Bullock, it’s treading very carefully in their language. If these phrases ever disappeared completely from their statements, there would be a solid case for barging into the RBA’s offices to see who had taken the board hostage.

But there were some far clearer views expressed by the bank than usual.

First, there’s no longer any concern about people losing their jobs or struggling to find one. The unemployment rate has “risen gradually”........

© The Sydney Morning Herald