{"id":673462,"date":"2026-11-03T07:22:26","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673462\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T07:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:22:26","slug":"australia-hikes-rates-to-18-year-high-to-fight-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673462\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia hikes rates to 18-year high to fight inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia&#8217;s central bank raised its benchmark cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.85% on Tuesday, the highest level since November 2008.<\/p>\n<p>The Reserve Bank of Australia&#8217;s move was in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters, and marked its fifth rate increase this year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rba.gov.au\/media-releases\/2026\/mr-26-30.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">In its statement,<\/a> the RBA said that the move was a split decision, with six members voting for the increase and three opting for a hold. <\/p>\n<p>This also comes as the country continues to grapple with high inflation, with the consumer price index rising 4.3% in September, up from 4% in August and marking its highest level since March.<\/p>\n<p>The central bank also said inflation is now expected to &#8220;remain elevated through much of 2027,&#8221; and not expected to fall back into its 2%-3% target range till late 2027, three quarters later than previously forecast. <\/p>\n<p>This was due to higher fuel and other commodity prices, in addition to factors including AI-related investment, which is driving rapid growth in prices for technology-related goods, the RBA said.<\/p>\n<p>In its September decision, RBA governor Michelle Bullock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rba.gov.au\/speeches\/2026\/mc-gov-2026-09-29.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said that<\/a> inflation is &#8220;too high,&#8221; driven by higher oil prices from the Iran War and stronger domestic spending. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re seeing signs that upside risks to inflation are materializing,&#8221; she added, saying that additional hikes will come &#8220;if that&#8217;s what&#8217;s needed to get inflation down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Growth has slowed in the first two quarters of 2026. Australia&#8217;s GDP rose 2.1% in the June quarter compared to a year earlier, down from 2.5% in the March quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The RBA is trying to bring inflation back under control while higher borrowing costs and cost-of-living pressures weigh on households and activity. <\/p>\n<p>When asked if she sees a recession for Australia, Bullock said that it is &#8220;not our base case at the moment.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia&#8217;s central bank raised its benchmark cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.85% on Tuesday, the highest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[284673,4635,986,11237,3393,72,122,11236,113,61,60,10684],"class_list":["post-673462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-lco27j","tag-asia-economy","tag-australia","tag-breaking-news-asia","tag-breaking-news-economy","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-central-banking","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-prices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}