Reserve Bank board members think switching back to a faster pace of interest rate hikes would have unnecessarily disrupted Australians' confidence.
In the minutes from the November board meeting, the central bank outlined the reasoning behind its 25 basis points interest rate hike.
The lagging impact of rate hikes was mentioned again, as well as the effect of cooling house prices on consumer behaviour.
"Previous episodes of lower housing prices and turnover had seen a large effect on consumer spending, in part through the wealth channel of transmission," the minutes said.
A return to the 50 basis point hike was discussed - especially in light of hotter-than-expected inflation in the September quarter - but board members said this could impact confidence.
"The board agreed that acting consistently would support confidence in the monetary policy framework among financial market participants and the community more broadly," they said.
Board members have not ruled out returning to larger hikes if the situation calls for it, and opened the door to pausing rate hikes to give them a chance to take effect.
"The board is prepared to keep rates unchanged for a period while it assesses the state of the economy and the inflation outlook," they said.
"Interest rates are not on a pre-set path."
At the same time, the central bank warned there would be more interest rate hikes to come "over the period ahead".
Meanwhile, consumer confidence has lifted for the first time in six weeks as Australians grow more optimistic about their financial future.
A bump in the "future financial conditions'' gauge helped push up ANZ and Roy Morgan's weekly indicator by 2.7 per cent.
But consumer sentiment remains well below historical averages and has a long way to go to recover from the cumulative 10.4 per cent decline in the previous six weeks.
"The lift in confidence doesn't change the fact it remains at a level not matched since the early 1990s recession, putting aside the early pandemic period," ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said.
Respondents felt more positive about the future last week, with the "future financial conditions'' sub-index climbing 4.9 per cent and "future economic conditions'' lifting three per cent.
However, ''good time to buy a major household item'' fell again last week, the fifth time in six weeks.
Mr Plank said downcast consumer sentiment was still not reflected in spending data in a meaningful way.
© AAP 2022