Economic News

Headlines about the cash rate are usually expressed in basis points. Household budgets are expressed in dollars. Translating one into the other is the purpose of this article.

Two numbers do a lot of work in the RBA's assessment of Australian mortgage holders. Around 2% of variable-rate owner-occupier borrowers are estimated to be in cash-flow shortfall. Fewer than 1% are in negative equity.

Falling three months behind on a home loan is one of the clearest signs that a household's finances have broken down. It is also one of the measures the RBA watches most closely when it assesses whether rising interest rates are causing lasting damage.

Mark 3 November in the diary. At 2.30 pm that day, the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Board is due to announce its next cash rate decision, five weeks after it lifted the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.60 per cent.

Investor borrowing grew at a strong pace in 2025. By the time the Reserve Bank released its October 2026 Financial Stability Review (FSR) on 1 October, that momentum had faded.

"High inflation hurts all Australians, especially the most vulnerable." That line, from Governor Michele Bullock's media conference on 29 September 2026, sat at the heart of her case for lifting the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.60 per cent.

A rate rise tends to prompt a familiar question in many households: is it time to look at the mortgage? This article does not answer that question for anyone. Whether any loan change suits a particular borrower depends on individual circumstances, and that is …