Who is Michelle Bullock, the first woman governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia?

The Reserve Bank of Australia's latest meeting on September 5 was the last under Governor Philip Lowe, with the Australian Government refusing to hire him for a second term.

In fact, the government has already decided to choose his deputy governor, Michelle Bullock, as the first woman to lead the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Australia's treasury secretary Jim Challemers said Bullock is the right choice to lead one of the best and most vibrant central banks in the world.

He added that while it's not usual for a governor to only lead a single term, the government felt that Bullock is the better choice to helm the central bank and its reforms going forward. 

The Australian government was pressured to let Lowe go after he encouraged people to borrow during the Covid 19 pandemic in 2021, and he back then said it's unlikely for interest rates to rise until 2024.

Of course since then, the RBA raised interest rates 12 times to a decade high at 4.1%, adding hundreds of dollars in monthly mortgage payments for families suffering already from high inflation.

Philip Lowe already announced his retirement on September 17 after working at the RBA for nearly 43 years.

As for Bullock, she'll start her seven-year term by the end of September, and she'll need to handle a difficult of policies and conditions, between dealing with stubborn inflation and the need to reform the central bank.

Bullock 

Sixty-year old Michelle Bullock worked as RBA Deputy Governor since April 2022, and worked at the central bank since 1985.

She's the first woman to lead the bank since its foundation in 1959.