"We think the key change is that 'would ease monetary policy further' has become 'prepared to ease monetary policy further'. While this is a subtle change, we think it matters," Mr Plank said.

JP Morgan's Ben Jarman said reasons for why the central bank would not cut rates were now a "more interesting change to the minutes", because they had not been overly prominent in RBA communications of late.

"On the list of reasons to wait, the minutes note 1) monetary policy already is 'expansionary', 2) tax cuts are in play and the mining and housing sectors have reached turning points, 3) some stimulus perhaps should be kept 'in reserve', and 4) policy might now be 'less effective than past experience suggests'," Mr Jarman said.

Retail figures released on Tuesday show spending intentions fell back in September, adding to concerns interest rate cuts have scared off consumers, according to the Commonwealth Bank.

Travel, entertainment, retail and home buying all went backwards.

"The latest edition of the household spending intentions series shows a disappointing downturn in retail spending intentions," CBA chief economist Michael Blythe said.

"The risk now is that monetary policy actions may actually be blunting the impact of fiscal stimulus. Business and consumer confidence, for example, has weakened since the current rate cut cycle commenced in mid-2019."


RBA to miss goals

In July, The Australian Financial Review reported that shopping centre landlords were urging the Reserve Bank of Australia to hold off on another interest rate cut, saying it would create "panic" among consumers which could have unintended consequences for economic growth.

The Reserve Bank minutes also revealed that its most recent forecasts suggested unemployment and inflation rates over the next few years were "likely to be short of the Bank's goals" and that this was part of the reason for cutting the official interest rate by 25 basis points in October – the third time this year.

"The most recent run of data had not materially altered this assessment and, on balance, had been on the softer side," the minutes say.

"There was therefore a case to respond to the general outlook with a further easing of monetary policy."

The minutes also noted that the "housing market and other asset prices might be overly inflated by lower interest rates".

"Members acknowledged that asset prices were part of the transmission mechanism of policy, including by encouraging home building. By themselves, higher asset prices were considered unlikely to present a risk to macroeconomic and financial stability," the minutes say.

"This assessment would need to be reviewed if rapidly increasing asset prices were accompanied by materially faster credit growth, weak lending standards and rising leverage. Although household debt was still considered high, members saw only a limited risk of excessive borrowing at the current juncture."


As housing prices rose 3.6 per cent in four months there are some expectations that spending on cars and furniture will start to rebound.

On Tuesday, however, furniture retailer Nick Scali said store traffic had been down 10 to 15 per cent in the September quarter.

"The company believes this is linked to lower general retail demand associated with the recent slowing in housing sales and renovations and a cautious consumer attitude," the company said in a statement.

CBA's consumer spending intentions data, which covers 2.5 million households, showed that much of the gains made in August were surrendered in September.

"The pullback is also potentially a sign that interest rate cuts are less effective – consumers interpret rate cuts from record lows as a sign of economic weakness and keep their wallets shut."

The CBA data is a strong leading indicator as it draws upon near real-time spending readings from the bank's household debit and credit transactions data.

“While there were some positive signs in sectors where the tax refunds now flowing would most likely be spent, the overall picture is one of continued consumer caution,” Mr Blythe said.

Spending on education and motor vehicles were the only areas where consumers were expected to lift their expenditure. Research typically identifies motor vehicle spending as the most sensitive to any wealth effect.