![\"All](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/banks-and-michele-bullock_4059.png\")
All of the Big Four banks expect the RBA will hold interest rates in June, but there could be further hikes later in the year. \u00b7 Source: Getty\/AAP <\/p>\n All of the Big Four banks expect the RBA will hold interest rates in June, but there could be further hikes later in the year. \u00b7 Source: Getty\/AAP <\/p>\n
Aussie mortgage holders are expected to be spared another back-to-back interest rate hike<\/a> next month following a jump in the unemployment rate<\/a>. Major bank NAB has pushed back its rate hike expectations, while Westpac and ANZ say the numbers reaffirm expectations the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will hit pause in June.<\/p>\n NAB<\/a> shifted its call for a final rate hike from June to August, after the unemployment rate<\/a> hit 4.5 per cent in April to mark its highest level since the pandemic. The number of employed people fell by 18,600 in the month, while the number of unemployed rose by 33,000.<\/p>\n The jobless rate was higher than NAB had expected, with senior economist Taylor Nugent stating the soft print would challenge the RBA\u2019s judgement<\/a> that the labour market would remain resilient this year.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/p>\n \u201cThere is now less urgency for the RBA Board to lean more firmly against inflation risks, and the balance of risks has shifted in favour of the Board\u2019s characterisation that they have some \u2018space\u2019 to monitor incoming data for both inflation and activity impacts due to higher oil prices and uncertainty coming out of the Middle East,\u201d Nugent said.<\/p>\n Westpac economist Ryan Wells said the data included some \u201cabnormal\u201d seasonality due to Easter, but it was \u201cstill genuinely weaker than expected\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOur call for the RBA to pause in its June policy meeting is now high-conviction, and the chance that the RBA waits even longer is non-zero,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, though, the most immediate and pressing concern for the RBA is inflation<\/a>. We continue to expect that the RBA will resume raising the cash rate when the size and pace of pass-through of the energy price shock is revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you have a story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com<\/a><\/p>\n Westpac<\/a> is expecting further rate hikes in August and September, which would take the cash rate to 4.85 per cent.<\/p>\n ANZ chief economist Adam Boyton said the numbers supported the bank\u2019s expectations that the RBA will hit \u201cpause\u201d at the June meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe suspect that the RBA will still choose to assess the labour market as \u2018tight\u2019 in the June post-meeting statement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n ANZ<\/a> and Commonwealth Bank<\/a> do not currently expect any further interest rate hikes in this cycle.<\/p>\n Commonwealth Bank senior economist Trent Saunders said the data showed signs that labour market conditions were easing.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, it is too early to tell how much of the rise in the unemployment rate in April reflects noise or a more fundamental shift in underlying momentum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All of the Big Four banks expect the RBA will hold interest rates in June, but there could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5629,64,63,99,164,31008,5626,5630,43014,174614,183,165,8420],"class_list":["post-686620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-anz","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-expectations","tag-interest-rates","tag-nab","tag-rate-hike","tag-rate-hikes","tag-reserve-bank-of-australia","tag-unemployment-rate","tag-westpac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686620","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=686620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}