Migration blamed for worsening housing crisis<\/a><\/p>\nAnd with November marking the first month in which the RBA begins to focus on monthly inflation figures, rather than quarterly, thanks to a range of new capabilities allowing the data to consider nearly twice as many measurable factors as before, there is a chance the central bank could be prompted to move in December with a hike.<\/p>\n
The Christmas and holiday peak spending season, coming straight after Black Friday sales, could be a reason for a pre-emptive hike to temper spending and prevent the RBA being confronted with even more concerning numbers when it meets again in February 2026.<\/p>\n
At its November meeting, the RBA elected to leave rates on hold after three rate cuts this year. Governor Michele Bullock warned inflation was \u201cmaterially higher than expected\u201d after the September quarter CPI numbers came in at 3.2 per cent.<\/p>\n
Trimmed-mean inflation, the RBA\u2019s preferred gauge, had climbed back toward 3 per cent and was forecast to remain there until mid-2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust below 3 per cent is not good enough for the board,\u201d Ms Bullock said, reaffirming 2.5 per cent as a preferred target figure going forward. <\/p>\n
![\"RBA](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
<\/p>\n
RBA Governor Michele Bullock following the November decision to hold rates. Picture: Nikki Short<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already had three interest rate cuts. I know that mortgage holders always want more, but it\u2019s also important we keep inflation under control because that\u2019s ultimately what impacts people\u2019s living standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Bullock said keeping the cash rate steady could allow inflation to get back to target sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t lower the cash rate from here it gives you a little bit more downward pressure on demand at the margin,\u201d she said. \u201cIt might get you to 2.5 per cent a bit more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, we\u2019re a long way from target, and getting further away, so mortgage holders brace yourself, because your Christmas bill may be about to get higher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine was not surprised by inflation expectations. ANALYSIS Mortgage holders are in for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-309175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}