Australia's central bank has kept interest rates on hold at 4.75%, in line with expectations.
Interest rates in Australia have now been on hold for the past nine months.
Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens says the board considered lifting interest rates but decided global uncertainty - in particular the debt problems in Europe and the US - had bought the board some more time.
He says the RBA board is particularly worried about building price pressures in the economy and the outlook for inflation in the medium term, the ABC reports.
Most analysts had predicted that ongoing sovereign debt issues in the US and Europe, combined with unrelenting weak economic data across most sectors of the Australian economy, would stay the RBA's, at least for another few months.
