By the Reserve Bank’s own words, Donald Trump is more of a threat to the global and domestic economy than the COVID pandemic and the global financial crisis combined.

As it cut official interest rates to a two-year low of 3.85 per cent, and paved the way for looser monetary policy in the weeks and months ahead, the RBA released its latest quarterly outlook for the economy.

Michele Bullock and the Reserve Bank are living in highly uncertain times – mostly due to one man.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

This document, which contains its key forecasts around inflation, unemployment, wages growth and household spending, is the bank’s best guess of how the economy will pan out over the coming two years.

Across 68 pages, the word “uncertain” (or “uncertainty”) was used 132 times.

In the same document a year ago, it was used just 31 times. During the depths of the pandemic in mid-2020, it was used on 52 occasions. As the world’s financial system seized up in late 2008 during the global financial crisis, it appeared just a dozen times.

Explaining the bank’s rates decision at a press conference following its monetary policy committee meeting, governor Michele Bullock said not only was the uncertainty caused by Trump and his trade war a problem, but so was his unpredictability.

In some unusually candid language,........

© The Sydney Morning Herald