Thank you for the invitation to return to this platform. This being a forecasting conference, you will have spent much of your time contemplating the outlook for 2012. The Reserve Bank set out its views on the outlook only a few weeks ago, and I will not canvass any changes to them on this occasion. Instead, I propose to return to a theme I have covered on some previous occasions, namely, the nature and use of forecasts for policy purposes. A couple of important points that have been illustrated over the past two or three years are worth drawing out. To begin, I would like to draw some observations from another kind ... (full story)