There is not much to be achieved by leaning against the wind, said Guy Debelle, the assistant governor for financial markets at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Debelle said that the wind that was blowing in most episodes of credit booms was at least "gale force" and that setting interest rates a bit higher in such circumstances would be "futile" when such credit dynamics took hold. He said that when optimism about asset-price rises was at the fore, then excessively stringent setting of interest