$A boosted by neutral RBA statement A neutral statement on monetary policy from the central bank has given the Australian dollar a bounce after earlier being dragged down by weak retail sales data. At 1700 AEST on Tuesday, the local unit was trading at 90.34 US cents, up from 89.84 cents on Monday. The RBA on Tuesday kept the cash rate on hold at 2.5 per cent, as it waits for previous rate cuts to take effect. Before the rate decision, the Australian dollar was weighed down by data showing retail spending rose 0.1 per cent in July, missing expectations of a 0.4 per cent rise, Easy Forex senior dealer Francisco Solar said. "The Aussie was on the back foot after retail sales came in weaker than expected but then really all eyes were on the RBA," Mr Solar said. There weren't too many variations from previous statements. It seems like the markets took it as `well if we don't have any new negatives to focus on, then it's a positive', and they decided to push the Aussie higher. So in the absence of bad news, it was actually a good event. At 1700 AEST, the Australian dollar was at 89.94 Japanese yen, up from Monday's close of 88.80 yen, and at 68.58 euro cents, up from 67.96 euro cents. Meanwhile, Australian bond futures prices were lower after the market interpreted the RBA statement as being slightly more neutral than expected. ANZ head of interest rate research Tony Morriss said the RBA statement issued in conjunction with the rate decision had been "taken by the market as exhibiting a slightly more neutral tone rather than an outright easing bias." Bond prices had rallied ahead of the rate decision, due to the weaker than expected retail sales figures. At 1630 AEST on Tuesday, the September 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.005 (implying a yield of 3.995 per cent), down from 96.040 (3.960 per cent) on Monday. The September three-year bond futures contract was at 97.130 (2.870 per cent), down from 97.190 (2.810 per cent).