Mortgage holders should expect more interest rate pain, as the central bank has \u201cno choice\u201d but to lift the cash rate next Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In a grim warning for households, a poll of economists and industry experts by comparison site Finder found 27 of 36 predict there will be more interest rate pain for households.<\/p>\n
Should the 75 per cent of experts calling for a rate hike be correct, it will be the RBA\u2019s third interest rate rise in the last three meetings and reverse the cash rate relief in 2025. <\/p>\n
During its first two meetings of the year in February and March, the RBA lifted the cash rate by 50 basis points to 4.10 per cent. <\/p>\n
According to Finder, Aussies with an average home loan of $736,259 will have to fork out $2657 more per year on their mortgage if there is a third 25 basis point hike in May. <\/p>\n
Wealth Within Group chief investment analyst Dale Gillham predicts further interest rate pain for households. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they have much choice, given inflation is still rising,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, I don\u2019t really agree with it, given that government spending is really responsible for the inflation numbers we are getting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call follows Wednesday\u2019s inflation data that gave the RBA more ammunition to lift the cash rate. <\/p>\n
The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the pain motorists have been feeling for months, with headline inflation jumping by 1.1 per cent in the March quarter, largely due to surging oil prices.<\/p>\n
The consumer price index rose 4.6 per cent in the 12 months to March 2026.<\/p>\n
That number is Australia\u2019s highest inflation since September 2023 when the nation\u2019s economy was rebounding after Covid-19.<\/p>\n
Leading the inflation spike was a 32.8 per cent rise in petrol costs in March, lifting the cost of transportation by 9.2 per cent in just 30 days.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the all-important trimmed mean inflation \u2013 which the RBA uses as its preferred measure of the economy, as it strips out seasonality and volatility \u2013 came in at 3.3 per cent over the last three months or unchanged over the 12 months until March.<\/p>\n
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver says this figure is above the central bank\u2019s target range and could lead to more rate pain for households. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is well above target even before the second round impact of higher oil prices (and) things like airfares, fertiliser, plastics and transport costs hit inflation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there is a rising risk that inflation expectations are rising again impacting wage claims. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo the RBA is likely to hike again to improve its confidence that inflation will fall back to target on a reasonable timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queensland University of Technology adjunct professor and personal finance expert Noel Whittaker believes the RBA will hold the cash rate due to the pressures on households. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it would be economic madness to raise rates in this time of uncertainty,\u201d he said.
\u201cAnd even though a recession is forecast, it\u2019s not happening yet, so they won\u2019t be dropping them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mortgage holders should expect more interest rate pain, as the central bank has \u201cno choice\u201d but to lift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,115817,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-644685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-newswire-business","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644685","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=644685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}