The Reserve Bank has left millions of borrowers a little more relaxed for their summer holidays, keeping interest rates on hold.
Having responded to stronger-than-expected quarterly inflation figures by lifting the cash rate to 4.35 per cent in November, the RBA has used softer-than-expected monthly inflation data as an excuse to sit tight in December.
With no meeting scheduled for January, borrowers should be safe from further rate rises until at least February.
Since May 2022, interest rates have risen 4.25 percentage points, adding more than $1,200 a month to repayments on a $500,000 home loan with a 25-year term remaining.
RateCity said a borrower with a half-a-million-dollar loan who had not refinanced to a cheaper rate would now have paid almost $25,000 in extra interest payments over the past 20 months as a result of the rate increases.
Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis, who until October was the RBA’s assistant governor (economic), thinks there is a good chance the next move in rates will be down.
“There’s a range of different pieces of data that are suggesting that the Reserve Bank doesn’t necessarily need to go again,” she told The Business ahead of today’s RBA meeting.
