Empower Blog Inflation

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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RBA Rates Decision – December 2011

Although there were plenty tipping this rate cut including the money markets, the RBA’s move to cut rates by a further 25 basis points came as a surprise to me given the minutes of the November meeting suggested it was a close call that we got a rate cut on Melbourne Cup Day. The messages from the RBA following the November cut, was that its Nove...

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RBA Rates Decision – August 2011

For the first time in a while the RBA decision on interest rates was something worth watching.  Only two weeks before the inflation data was released last week, there was Bill Evans – Westpac’s chief Economist - on Sunday night TV talking about rates coming down.  Then stepping up to the plate is the Inflation Genie, which really put a spanne...

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RBA Rates Decision – November 2010

Unless you have been living under a rock you would by now know that the RBA lifted the official cash rate by 0.25% to 4.75% yesterday afternoon.  The first rise in over 6 months.  They saw it prudent to move the cost of money higher, in light of the relatively strong economy and a growing global outlook.  This will most likely be the last rate r...

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The Tangible and the Intangible Measure of Money

This month marks the month that we first launched our Private Client Wealth Division to a pilot group of existing customers. Since that date over 80 clients have attended our private dinner function to showcase these new professional services.  So what is our Private Client Wealth Advisory Service? Well, it’s a complete cash flow and wealth crea...

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RBA Rates Decision – February 2010

The RBA announced an increase in the cash rate from 3.75% to 4.00% today.  This is the fourth consecutive increase in rates (given the RBA doesn’t meet in January).  The cash rate has now moved up 1.00% from a low of 3.00% back in April last year. Most forecasters are expecting the cash rate to increase by another 0.75% by the end of the yea...

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