The Reserve Bank has kept the official cash rate on hold as expected at 4.1 per cent. Today's meeting was Philip Lowe’s last as RBA governor before he hands over to Michele Bullock next week.
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00:00 How are you this morning Mr Lowe?
00:03 There was little fanfare as outgoing Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe made his way to
00:07 his final board meeting.
00:08 Thank you and have a good day.
00:10 Where he kept the cash rate steady at 4.1%.
00:14 I wasn't surprised at all to see the Reserve Bank holding rates unchanged.
00:20 Under the 78 meetings presided over by Mr Lowe, the interest rate was kept on hold more
00:25 times than it moved.
00:27 From his first meeting in October 2016, the cash rate was kept unchanged for two and a
00:32 half years, the longest in the bank's history.
00:36 After several cuts in late 2019, the cash rate was slashed to a record low during COVID.
00:42 Before the board made 12 rate hikes, adding 4% to the cash rate in just 13 months, the
00:49 fastest hiking cycle in history, where it's now stayed since June.
00:54 I'd say with the benefit of hindsight that we kept interest rates too high ahead of COVID
01:00 and then as we were coming out of COVID we kept them too low for too long.
01:04 Despite the cash rate staying on hold, many borrowers are doing it tough.
01:10 Musician Hannah Irrawan has picked up extra work to cover her higher mortgage repayments.
01:16 I've definitely felt like this year just that the anxiety that does come with financial
01:22 pressure which I think a lot of families are probably facing.
01:25 While inflation remains high, there are signs the economy is slowing.
01:29 So most economists think there's only one direction for rates to go.
01:34 We do think that we are at the top end of the rate hiking cycle and that the next move
01:38 will be down.
01:40 Philip Lowe's final official engagement is later this week, a favoured speech to the
01:45 Annika Foundation, before Michelle Bullock takes over to chair her first RBA board meeting
01:51 in October.
01:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]