As widely expected, RBA decided to leave official interest rates unchanged at 4.5 per cent today.
Positive inflation numbers, flat retail sales and soft housing data allowed RBA to keep interest rates steady for a third straight month.
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As widely expected, RBA decided to leave official interest rates unchanged at 4.5 per cent today.
Positive inflation numbers, flat retail sales and soft housing data allowed RBA to keep interest rates steady for a third straight month.
At its meeting today, RBA decided to leave official interest rates unchanged at 4.5 per cent.
Rates were put on hold after 3 consecutive raises in a previous months as RBA believes that interest rates to borrowers are around their average levels of the past decade:
At its meeting today, RBA decided to raise the cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.5 per cent, effective 5 May 2010.
At its meeting today, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to raise official interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 per cent, effective 7 April 2010.
Out of the 16 economists surveyed eleven have forecast that the RBA will increase the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point when it meets today.
Due to the inflation figures being higher than expected economists are tipping a fourth consecutive interest rate rise when the Reserve Bank meets next Tuesday.
The fact that interest rates are on the rise has made consumers more wary when it comes to making big financial decisions regarding the purchase of a home, blocks of land and for motor vehicles, thus borrowing fell for the month of November.
Some parts of Australia experienced reductions in rents during the December quarter, but an increase is anticipated later this year.
In a report to be released it is predicted that the results will reveal that national rental growth was the weakest since 2002. This compares to an average rate of 12 per cent for 2007 and 2008.
Due to shoppers feeling more confident about spending, another interest rate rise seems to be on the cards.
Retail trade figures released for November have shown a 7 per cent rise over the year, due to the major stores having their sales, but for the smaller stores sales fell for the month of November.