Australian customer sentiment saw a noteworthy plunge for a second straight month in the month of June, providing more confirmation that the Reserve Bank of Australia may stay suspended for the moment after increasing rates uncompromisingly in the preceding nine months.

For June, an index of consumer sentiment in Australia saw a fall by 5.7 % from May, following a 7 % drop the month before. The index fell to 101.9 points in the month of June in seasonally adjusted conditions from 108.0 points in May, compilers Westpac and the Melbourne Institute said today.

Westpac made a note that the two-month drop was the biggest ever since March 2008.

Standing out in the report were apprehensions relating to the international financial conditions, which registered the most horrible interpretation since the end of the global monetary catastrophe.

Westpac Chief Economist, Bill Evans said May's decline mainly mirrored the RBA's conclusion to increase interest rates three successive times to the current 4.5% level. In the most recent month, however, the RBA paused, with international concerns that threatened to make that move imprecise.

Existing 30-day interbank futures do not have an additional rate hike priced in until the month of August of 2011.