Empower Blog Cash Rate

RBA Rate Decision – August 2016

As I anticipated last month, the Reserve Bank has moved on the cash rate by dropping the cash rate lower. We are now in a stage where we are effectively in an uncharted territory with the cash rate as low as what we've got. It's an interesting time. So on balance, what they've looked at is the inflation data. Now, usually what they like to see is i...

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RBA Rate Decision – July 2016

Wow, to be a fly on the wall at the latest RBA Board Meeting. It would be fascinating as the conversation would have move to the political uncertainty that we currently got in federal politics. Really important to understand that this 'circus' that is happening in Canberra and this new structure of our government, the lower house and the upper hous...

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RBA Rate Decision – June 2016

Today the Reserve Governor and the Board met and they kept interest rates on hold. So the cash rate remained at 1.75% leading into the federal election on July 2. So there’s a couple of things that I want to talk about. Firstly is negative gearing. We know that the Liberal Party is not making any changes to negative gearing but the Labor Party i...

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RBA Rate Decision – May 2016

On this budget Tuesday, the Reserve Governor and the Board met and they’ve dropped interest rates. Now this is the first interest rate drop since May of last year. So it’s been 12 months but they've decided to pull the trigger on the cash rate and lower in that cash rate. Now what’s interesting about this is, if we actually go back two weeks...

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RBA Rate Decision – April 2016

As widely anticipated the reserve governor and the board met and they've kept interest rates on hold for another month. Now what are we looking at around interest rates and monetary and fiscal policy? Well there's a lot of things that we're looking at. Firstly, we're coming into an election period and what that means is the reserve bank may actual...

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RBA Rate Decision – March 2016

Today, the reserve government and the board meet and they have kept interest rate on hold for another month. Now it has been an interesting month, past month, we saw the labor party come out with negative gearing policy changes. What's interesting about this negative gearing policy change is the way they've decided to treat new and existing propert...

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2016 Mortgage and Lending Outlook

Here are the other parts of the 2016 Outlook: Australian Property Market Outlook: Part 1: Sydney & Regional NSW Part 2: Melbourne & Regional VIC Part 3: Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia Part 4: Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania Global Economy and Equity Market Outlook Part 1: United States E...

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RBA Rate Decision – February 2016

Today the Governor and the Reserve Board met and they've kept interest rates on hold for the first meeting of 2016. Now that keeps the cash rate at 2% and we haven't seen the change in the cash rate since May last year. Now the big news of the turn of the calendar year was actually the share market and the jitters that we saw run through those mar...

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RBA Rate Decision – December 2015

Yes, it is the first of December and I still have the remnants of my mustache from Movember. Trust me, it will be gone by tonight. Just a busy morning. Anyway, I'm not here to talk about my mustache and Movember but thank you to those who donated. It is very kind of you. Let's talk about the RBA. As widely anticipated, and it is pretty much unanimo...

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RBA Rate Decision – November 2015

On this Melbourne Cup Tuesday, the RBA Board met and they've kept interest rates on hold for another month. Now, they has been a lot that have happened in the last month and I'm going to spend a few minutes talking about that. The first thing we saw is an out-of-cycle rate rise for mortgage holders, most importantly, not business lending. Just m...

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RBA Interest Rate Cut

Anchor: For the first time in 18 months, RBA has reduced the cash rate by 25 basis points. That's a quarter of a percent for you and I. The move was design to lower the exchange rate and offset declines in key commodity prices. However many are wondering how the 2015 Australian Property Market will react. Bryce Holdaway is a partner in Empower W...

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RBA Rate Decision – February 2015 – Why did they drop 25 basis points?

So why did the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) moved on interest rates this month when most commentators including myself actually thought it would stay at the 2.5% cash rate. The 25 basis points reduction to 2.25%- what's behind that? Well, the story is around our currency and we really need to get our currency lower. I think you'll find the RB...

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RBA Rate Decision – December 2014

Today the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Board meets and kept interest rates on hold at 2.5%. The cash rate is now been at 2.5% since August 2013 and the Reserve Bank board won't actually meet until next February so we're going to see this low monetary policy position for the extended period. Inside the minutes of the last meeting, it was also ver...

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