Economic News

The Reserve Bank's October Financial Stability Review warned that share prices tied to artificial intelligence already assume a great deal will go right, from adoption and productivity to revenue and profits.

Two days after lifting the cash rate for the fourth time in 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released its latest assessment of the health of the financial system. The October 2026 Financial Stability Review (FSR), published at 11.30 am on Thursday 1 …

Around 2 per cent of variable-rate owner-occupier borrowers do not earn enough to cover both their mortgage repayments and essential spending, and the RBA's October Financial Stability Review explains why that small group deserves attention.

The RBA's October Financial Stability Review estimates the median mortgage holder could cover more than 12 months of scheduled repayments from offset and redraw balances – a cushion that does much of the work in the Bank's resilience verdict.

The Reserve Bank's October Financial Stability Review pushed unemployment, inflation and interest rates sharply higher at the same time to see how mortgage holders would cope – and found that the share at higher risk of default would rise to around 5 per cent.

In the RBA's harshest mortgage scenario, the share of borrowers at higher risk of default climbs to around 5 per cent – a level the October Financial Stability Review says is only a little above the 2023 peak.

Despite recent falls in home prices across most capital cities, the RBA's October Financial Stability Review estimates that less than 1 per cent of mortgage holders are in negative equity.