For the second consecutive meeting, Australia's Reserve Bank left its cash rate unchanged at 4.35 per cent — a pause, not a pivot. Inflation has held above the bank's target band for eleven straight months, and the board's message was measured but firm: the tools remain on the table. In an economy running warmer than it can sustain, and with geopolitical pressures adding fuel to the fire, the quiet of a held rate carries its own kind of tension.