SYDNEY, March 8 Reuters The head of Australia39;s central bank on Wednesday said it was closer to pausing its aggressive cycle of rate increases as policy was now in restrictive territory, and suggested a halt could come as soon as April.

Reserve Bank of Australia RBA Governor Philip Lowe did reiterate that further tightening was still likely to tame inflation, having lifted rates to an 11year high of 3.60 at a policy meeting on Tuesday.

However, Lowe noted the Board had discussed the long lags in monetary policy, the effects of the 10 hikes already delivered and the impact of higher borrowing costs on households.

We also discussed that, with monetary policy now in restrictive territory, we are closer to the point where it will be appropriate to pause interest rate increases to allow more time to assess the state of the economy, Lowe said in a speech on recent data and inflation.

At what point it will be appropriate to pause will be determined by the data and our assessment of the outlook.

Answering questions after the speech, Lowe said the Board was ready to react month to month and if coming economic data supported a pause, it could choose to do so at the next policy meeting on April 4.

The dovish message saw markets scale back the likely peak for rates to 4.10, compared to 4.35 a week ago.

It was also in stark contrast to the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve who warned on Tuesday that rates there might have to rise faster and higher than expected to get…