RBA
Tight jobs market adds to pressure on Reserve Bank to accelerate rate rises
The number of people looking for a job or underemployed has dropped to its lowest level in 40 years as the unemployment rate remains steady at 3.9 per cent.
- by Rachel Clun
Latest
Analysis
Interest rates
World’s central banks got it wrong, and economies pay the price
Even after central banks recognised they got their inflation calls wrong last year, they’ve continued to flub their policy guidance, roiling markets and threatening greater damage to their credibility.
- by Enda Curran
Wage rise tipped to spur greater living costs
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the decision by the Fair Work Commission to award a $40-a-week increase to the minimum wage saying it was a cost of living lifeline.
- by Rachel Clun and Angus Thompson
Opinion
Consumer confidence
Confidence crash: Terrified consumers shut their wallets and fear for the future
We are now at the point where measuring confidence feels like a misnomer - we should replace it with a fear metric.
- by Elizabeth Knight
Analysis
Renting
Low vacancy rates mean rental crisis will last
Rents are set to keep rising as property investors seek to recoup their higher costs of borrowing.
- by John Collett
Opinion
Inflation
Shock US inflation a rude reality check for already shaken markets
The Federal Reserve Board meets this week against the backdrop of a shock increase in inflation late on Friday, leaving chair Jerome Powell little choice but to raise rates for the third time this year.
- by Stephen Bartholomeusz
Rate rises could hit renters harder than homeowners
In one of the current housing market’s worst ironies, the people likely to be slugged hardest by the latest interest rate increase are those who don’t actually own property.
- by Sue Williams
Mortgage ‘cliff’ looming for home owners when fixed-rate loans end
Experts are warning borrowers who were able to lock in low, fixed mortgage rates early in the pandemic face a jump in repayments once their terms expire.
- by Rachel Clun
Editorial
Australian economy
It’s not easy but new treasurer must come up with some solution to nation’s problems
Labor is now in government, not in opposition. It cannot merely point out the nation’s problems, it has to find solutions too.
- The Herald's View
CBA tips 18% peak-to-trough fall in Sydney, Melbourne home prices
Commonwealth Bank economists expect larger falls in house prices on the back of this week’s interest rate rise.
- by Clancy Yeates
Latest rate rise casts shadow over Pallas’ budget surplus prediction
Economists are divided on what impact the faster than expected rate rises will mean for the Victorian Treasurer’s projected surplus of $650 million in 2025-26, which one said was based on optimistic assumptions.
- by Sumeyya Ilanbey and Annika Smethurst