Interest Rates in Australia Oct 2009.
6 October 2009
At its meeting today, the Reserve Bank Board decided to raise the cash rate by 25 basis points, to 3.25 per cent.Statement by Glenn Stevens, Governor: Monetary Policy
For many years Australia has had higher interest rates than many other similar countries.
During the 2008/09 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), this appears to have helped Australia to weather the financial meltdown in a much better way than other countries, maybe even assisting in being the only country to avoid an actual technical recession.
In October 2009 Australia may even be the first country to raise its official bank rates, after this GFC.
A history of Australia’s Mortgage Interest rates, between 1989 and 2009, can be seen at:
On the 7th April 2009, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut interest rates by 0.25% to bring the official Interest rate down to 3%.
It is expected that this low rate, termed an “emergency rate” by the Governor of the RBA and the Treasurer, will increase soon increase.
This increase may occur in October 2009, or may be left until a bit later. Some experts are stating that they expect a rise each month for the next three months, ie: October, November and December.
We shall soon see.
It is worth noting the normal difference between the Official Interest rate and the Home Lenders Standard Variable Rate for Mortgages.
- 3.00% RBA Official Interest rate (Sept 2009)
- 5.74% CBA Home Loan Standard Variable Rate (Sept 2009)
- 5.45% Heritage Building Society (Sept 2009)
Most lenders are around the above figures, although discounts of up to about 0.7%, are available by negotiation at many lenders.