The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point as inflation pressures abate, delivering a bigger-than-forecast reduction that sent the local dollar and bond yields tumbling. Governor Glenn Stevens and his board slashed the overnight cash rate target to a two-year low of 3.75 percent from 4.25 percent, the deepest reduction in three years, the central bank said in a statement in Sydney today. Two of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted the move, while the other 27 forecast a quarter-point reduction. The half-point cut was “judged to be necessary in order to ... (full story)