As you might expect for a central bank that has kept interest rates on hold, there is both good and bad news in the Reserve Bank's latest assessment of the economy.

To the good news first.

The RBA's latest quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy (SMP) predicts Australia's economy will keep growing at about 2 per cent a year for the foreseeable future.

A key driver of that is expected to be housing investment, forecasts for which have been upgraded again as the federal, state and territory governments continue to push towards a highly unlikely target of 1.2 million new homes built before the end of the decade.

The bank's latest forecasts suggest last month's shock increase in unemployment to 4.5 per cent was merely a blip, with the jobless rate expected to remain steady just below that l

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