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Interest Rate Update – June 2018

Cash Rate – No change

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.50%.

Yesterday we heard that retail sales increased by a better than expected 0.4% in April (against an anticipated 0.3%) and company profits rose 5.9% in the March quarter, influenced in particular by a 11.0% increase in mining profits.   Tomorrow we should see Australia’s GDP figures for the March quarter lift by 0.8% or 0.9%.    Notwithstanding these positive results the RBA remains comfortable to remain on the sidelines, possibly until well into 2019, until we see an increase to both our inflation rate (currently 1.9%) and wages growth.

For more information, or if you would like a free review of your residential, commercial or SMSF loans against other competitive products in the market please contact Peter, David or Simon via this email, our phone: (03) 9882 2500, or visit www.firstpointgroup.com.au

 

Interest Rate Update – April 2018

Cash Rate – No change

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.50%.

The RBA is confident Australia’s economy will be boosted this year by stronger LNG exports as new projects come onstream. In addition, non-mining investment will likely rise solidly, buoyed by population growth, low interest rates and dynamic global economic activity. However, sluggish wage growth, declining productivity and high levels of household debt will continue to weigh on the economy. GDP growth of 2.3 percent for 2017 is further evidence the RBA’s expectations for a pick up to 3.25% this year will be challenging.

We continue to believe that the RBA will maintain the current cash rate until wages growth and core inflation are on a sustained upward trend.  This is not expected until later this year or early 2019.

For more information, or if you would like a free review of your residential, commercial or SMSF loans against other competitive products in the market please contact Peter, David or Simon via this email, our phone: (03) 9882 2500, or visit www.firstpointgroup.com.au

 

Interest Rate Update – October 2016

No change

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.50%.

The price of oil rose to almost $US50 a barrel last week, following a decision by the Organisation of the Petroleum Countries (OPEC) to cut production for the first time in eight years.

This, together with some recent solid economic results, has influenced the RBA to hold off any changes to the cash rate in the short term.

The next key financial data will be the release of the quarterly inflation figures on 26th October – a very good guide for the RBA to use to decide if to further reduce the cash rate in November.

For more information, or if you would like a free review of your residential, commercial or SMSF loans against other competitive products in the market please contact Peter, David or Simon via this email, our phone: (03) 9882 2500, or visit https://www.firstpointgroup.com.au