{"id":864463,"date":"2026-09-29T07:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864463\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T07:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:44:14","slug":"australia-raises-rates-to-15-year-high-as-it-fights-stubborn-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864463\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia raises rates to 15-year high as it fights stubborn inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised policy rates to 4.6%, the highest level in 15 years, as the country looks to contain inflation stoked by the Middle East conflict. <\/p>\n

The hike of 25 basis points to the cash rate was in line with expectations by economists polled by Reuters.<\/p>\n

The Reserve Bank of Australia has now raised rates four times this year by a total 100 basis points as inflation remains sticky.<\/p>\n

In its statement<\/a>, the RBA said some of the upside risks flagged in its August meeting were now materializing. <\/p>\n

“The conflict in the Middle East has broadened and global energy prices are now much higher than had been assumed,” the central bank wrote, adding that AI-related demand was driving rapid price increases for technology-related goods.<\/p>\n

The RBA also said that it would “continue to do what it considers necessary,” to contain inflation, including increasing the policy rate further.<\/p>\n

The S&P\/ASX 200<\/a> and the Australian dollar were flat following the policy decision. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Australia’s inflation has run above its target band of 2%-3% for 2026, hitting a high of 4.6% in March. The country’s inflation rate last came in at 3.5% in July, beating estimates. August print is set to be released Wednesday. <\/p>\n

A note from Bank of America last week said inflation was accelerating rather than converging back to target. “The July CPI was the clearest evidence of this shift, adding to a pattern of rising core inflation in recent months.” <\/p>\n

There is also evidence of second-round effects from energy costs, reinforcing the risk that inflation is becoming entrenched, BofA said.<\/p>\n

“The Middle East conflict remains unresolved, and there are scenarios where inflation is higher and activity lower than forecast,” the RBA wrote.<\/p>\n

The central bank had warned of a growth slowdown in the country as rates rise, with Australia’s economy growing at 2.1%<\/a> in the second quarter, down from 2.5% in the first three months of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised policy rates to 4.6%, the highest level in 15 years, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[8073,1246,929,8072,28,122,8712,101,801,1052],"class_list":["post-864463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-asia-economy","tag-australia","tag-australian-dollar","tag-breaking-news-asia","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-central-banking","tag-economy","tag-iran","tag-prices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}