The US Federal Reserve looks set to raise its key interest rate this week but Treasurer Scott Morrison is confident Australia won't have to follow suit anytime soon.
The US central bank committee meets for the next two days and is expected to increase the Fed funds rate by 0.25 per cent to 1.625 per cent after hiking it three times last year.
That would be higher than the Reserve Bank's cash rate, presently at a record-low 1.5 per cent, something that hasn't occurred for almost 20 years.
The US had a higher rate than Australia between mid-1999 and December 2000 following the Asian financial crisis.
Mr Morrison does not expect any action by the Federal Reserve to upset Australia's stable monetary policy outlook.
He told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting in Buenos Aires that what was happening in the US had been "well-forecast" and had already been factored in.
"Australia's monetary settings have been far more stable in terms of what the outlook is," Mr Morrison said.
"They've been that way now for some period of time and ... there's no real view that that's about to change anytime soon."
As such, any exchange rate volatility associated with a US rate hike should be modest for Australia and "a positive for us", he said.
The Reserve Bank has held the cash rate steady since August 2016 and financial markets see only a slim chance of a rise this year.
The central bank's March 6 board meeting minutes released on Tuesday back the continuation of that stable outlook.
The minutes note low interest rates over 2017 had played a role in reducing the unemployment rate and bringing inflation closer to target.
"Further progress on these goals was expected over the period ahead, but this process was likely to be gradual," the minutes say.
The March board meeting came a day before the latest national accounts showed the economy grew by a modest 0.4 per cent in the final three months of 2017, dragging annual growth down to 2.4 per cent.
The latest weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index bounced back, rising 2.2 per cent after dropping 2.5 per cent the previous week on the weakest quarterly growth result in over a year.
"The bounce follows last week's report showing business conditions at a new record high and suggests that both the business and household communities remain optimistic about the outlook," ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett said.
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