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Showing posts with the label Interest rate

Ben Galea was the first home buyer. But rising interest rates did not worry him. This is the reason

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A 25-year-old man purchased a two-story house with a beautiful garden for over $300,000 referring to the early 1990s. Key points: Parts of Queensland saw property prices rise in July, contrary to national trends The Regional Australia Institute says housing affordability will keep much of Queensland more insulated from falling property prices than the city The Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast markets are the exception, registering accelerated declines in recent months But in outback Queensland towns like Longreach, it’s the norm. The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday raised interest rates for the fourth month in a row, but Longreach resident Ben Galea said he was not stressed. “When it came time for my fixed rate to change … I didn’t have to change my lifestyle,” Galea said. “It’s a great city. It’s bustling. There’s a lot of young people here. There’s a lot to do, a lot of sports. It’s brilliant. “There are things we don’t have here. It takes money to fly back to shore. You don’t see f

Men bought houses last year expecting prices to stay low. The series of RBA rate hikes makes it difficult

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The Reserve Bank has raised interest rates for the fourth month in a row, raising its target rate by half a percentage point. Key points: RBA has raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage point The target cash rate has now increased by 1.75 percentage points since early May to 1.85 percent A cash rate increase since early May will add about $472 per month to a $500,000 loan payment The RBA has now raised its benchmark interest rate by 1.75 percentage points since the first rate hike in May, with the target rate at 1.85 percent. In his post-meeting statement, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe said the latest rate hike is unlikely to be the last this year. “The board expects to take further steps in the process of normalizing monetary conditions over the next few months, but not on a predetermined path,” he said. “The size and timing of future rate hikes will be guided by incoming data and the board’s assessment of the inflation and labor market outlook. “The Board is committed to doing wh

Big miners weigh on ASX as iron ore prices drop

The Australian stock market lost more than 1 percent of its value in early trade and Rio Tinto announced a weaker economic outlook from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s COVID-19 lockdown. Key points: The Dow Jones index fell 0.5% to 30,630, the S&P500 fell 0.3% to 3,791, while the Nasdaq Composite index was steady at 11,251. The FTSE 100 index fell 1.6 percent to 7,040, Germany’s DAX fell 1.9 percent to 12,520 and Paris’ CAC 40 fell 1.4 percent to 5,915. Australian stock market is down more than 1 percent in early trading, pulled in by big miners In the first half hour of trading, the All Ordinaries index was down 1.2 percent, or 89 points, to 6,764, and the ASX 200 index was down 1.3 percent, to 6,565. Sectors of interest to the market include miners, energy companies, banks and real estate. Big miners fell as iron ore prices plunged 4.8 percent to 104.96 dollars a tonne on recession fears. The Australian dollar fell to 67.42 US cents after surging to nearly 68 US cents ye

Central banks 'have eggs in their faces' and risk causing a recession in their 'panic' to release them

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The Bank of Canada’s (BoC) surprise decision to raise interest rates by 1 percentage point has shocked global markets and Canadian borrowers and raised expectations more central banks will follow with super-sized hikes. Key points: The Bank of Canada has raised interest rates by a full percentage point, while monetary authorities in Singapore and the Philippines have also tightened them sharply Former IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld worries the central bank is catching up after delaying rate hikes for too long He warned that rising interest rates too quickly around the world could trigger a major economic downturn like that seen in the 1980s The BoC raised its policy rate from 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent, the highest since 2008, in a bid to contain inflation. It is far from alone in raising interest rates quickly. Today, the Philippine central bank raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points to 3.25 percent in an unscheduled move, while the Singaporean authorities also tighten

RBA may look to New Zealand for clues on the future of the Australian economy

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In the race to get off the economic rollercoaster caused by COVID, Australia’s Pacific neighbors New Zealand are holding the ball firmly in their hands and about six steps ahead. Key points: At 6.9 percent, inflation in New Zealand is the highest in 32 years Property prices have fallen about one percent every month since banks started raising interest rates in October 2021 ANZ chief economist for NZ not worried about recession After slashing interest rates during COVID, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) was one of the first to make a reversal and began increasing the official interest rate (OCR) in October 2021. His first increase was a quarter of a percentage point, with several rate increases of the same size after that. But it actually picked up in April, up half a percentage point, followed by another double gain in May. The RBNZ is widely expected to undertake another half a percentage point rate hike later today, at midday AEST. That would take its OCR from 0.25 percent in S

Are you a saver? This is what the cash rate increase means to you

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Are you one of the many savers who cheer when interest rates start to rise? For years, record low interest rates meant anyone with money in the bank got little or no interest. The Reserve Bank this week raised the official interest rate by 0.5 percentage point, its third increase in as many months. If you’re having trouble paying the higher interest rates on your mortgage, we’re here to help. But if you’re a saver (and don’t want to invest), here are three options for parking your money. First, what will happen to the interest rate on my savings account? Depends. The official cash rate has gone up, but that doesn’t mean everyone will earn more interest on their savings. It is up to individual lenders to decide how much of the Reserve Bank’s rate hikes to pass on to savers (and mortgage borrowers). Some lenders have already started going through the July hikes. In June, the big four banks were slow to pass rate hikes to their savings accounts and not all continued the hike in full. So i