Empower Blog Inflation

RBA Rates Decision – March 2013

The RBA decided to keep interest rates on hold at their March board meeting, as they sit on the fence waiting to see further data flowing through from the significant easing on the cash rate they did last year. Critical figures released last week show there are certain signs of a slowing in the capital expenditure in the mining sector.  Althoug...

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RBA Rates Decision – February 2013

The RBA left interest rates on hold today, which was expected by most economists and commentators, although the inflation data was lower than consensus opening the window for a possible cut.  However the strong employment position would have outweighed the need for a cut right now.  So the cash rate remains at 3.00% This easing cycle has seen ...

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RBA Rates Decision – December 2012

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has delivered an early Christmas gift for mortgage Holders with a rate cut of 0.25%. This brings the cash rate to 3.00%, which is at the level seen during the depths of the GFC.  So great news for those who hold debt, but not so pleasing to those who have savings deposits, as this will result in less interest in...

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RBA Rates Decision – October 2012

The RBA has reduced the cash rate at its October Board Meeting by 0.25%.  This brings the cash rate down to 3.25%. Most market analysts were split 50/50 on this decision to reduce rates, but for an economy that is definitely showing signs of slowing, it comes as welcome news to a mortgage holder. How welcome that news is will be left i...

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RBA Rates Decision – September 2012

The RBA today decided to keep the official cash rate at 3.5%, which was in line with economists and market expectations.  This decision was most likely made without the full impacts of several key data releases yesterday being fully assessed, but which point to a further slowing in the Australian economy. Here is a summary of some of the data, ...

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RBA Rates Decision – August 2012

The RBA board met today at their August Board Meeting and decided to leave the cash rate at the current level – 3.5%.  Even though the recent inflation data released indicates that inflation is no problem at all.  In fact, it is currently sitting under the target range of 2-3%, which could have given them justification for a further rate cut th...

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RBA Rates Decision – July 2012

Welcoming in the new financial year and after two rate movements in recent times reflecting a total of 75 basis points the RBA is now at the point of sitting on its hands to see the impact of its monetary policy, especially following the recent ‘surprise’ GDP figure showing the economy growing at 4.3% p.a which caught most analysts out. We a...

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Finance Talk: Time to Fix?

What an interesting 6 – 12 months we have seen in the lending markets, if you can cast your minds back a lot of the talk about 12 months ago was around how much more rates were going to increase and should we fix our mortgages or keep them variable? Now with the rates on a downward cycle again we are faced with the challenge of choosing to fix or...

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RBA Rates Decision – June 2012

The RBA reduced interest rates by a further 0.25% at its board meeting today, which surprised some analysts following last month’s 0.5% cut.  This move further highlights the RBA’s belief that Australia is not immune to the world financial and economic events going on around us, even though we are still very much reliant on the Chinese and oth...

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RBA Rates Decision – May 2012

The RBA has just announced a larger than consensus reduction in the cash rate – 50 basis points.  This is a very rare event for a traditionally conservative board.  So much so I have decided to add the entire statement from the RBA governor, Glenn Stephens. “At its meeting today, the Board decided to lower the cash rate by 50 basis poi...

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RBA Rates Decision – April 2012

The RBA has held off on a cash rate movement again this month, as they still appear happy with the current economic activity within the economy. Those doing business in the two biggest state economies of Sydney and Melbourne might disagree about the level of growth they are enjoying! But it’s not the RBA’s job to set cash rates for each state; ...

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RBA Rates Decision – February 2012

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) surprised the broader market this afternoon by leaving the cash rate at 4.25%. One would now expect a bit of media backlash towards the government and RBA for this decision in light of the recent media reports of major job losses in some sectors of the economy. Certainly expect to see the Retailer Association, Ma...

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The Cost of Spending

One of the fundamental principles of Empower Wealth’s Money Planning philosophy is that you should get your money to work as hard as possible for you.  In our previous newsletter, we looked at one approach to get your money working for you, by using an Offset Account to reduce the amount of Interest that you have to pay on your Mortgage. This a...

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