RBA Governor Stevens appearing before the Australian parliament's House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Economics. • Says says economy growing at below trend pace • Says inflation is low and appears likely to remain so • Further fall in AUD likely to occur • Says commodity prices have fallen quite sharply in some cases • Says monetary policy still has capacity to give additional support to economy • Fall in key export commodities hurting Australia's terms of trade • Says mining downswing will accelerate this year • Bank's forecasts assume lower path for interest rates, but is not a commitment to action • Says domestic demand outside mining mixed • Public sector spending still fairly subdued • Says working with other regulators on managing potential risks from rise in housing investment • Developments in the Sydney housing market remain concerning; not alarming elsewhere • Mone to come etary policy is still able to give extra demand support • Possible that monetary policy's "power to summon up additional growth in demand could, at these levels of interest rates, be less than it was in the past" • Unwise to react to one monthly jobs number • Says unemployment has been edging up, to keep happening for little while yet • Says unemployment remains low by historical standards |