00:01Well, the Reserve Bank has just cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.6%.
00:07This means three interest rate cuts in the space of six months.
00:12It means the lowest interest rates for more than two years.
00:17This is very welcome relief for millions of Australians.
00:20It will put more money in the pockets of people who are under pressure.
00:24It means $109 a month for every $700,000 owed and the three cuts this year together are about $330 a month or almost $4,000 a year.
00:40When you put together the three rate cuts we've seen in the last six months, that will deliver a saving of about $4,000 a year for every $700,000 owed on a mortgage.
00:52Now, this welcome decision wouldn't be possible without the progress that Australians have made together on inflation.
01:00Getting inflation down from those very high peaks in the year that we came to office down to well within the Reserve Bank's target range
01:09has given the independent Reserve Bank the confidence to cut interest rates three times this year.
01:16These rate cuts won't solve every problem that we have in our economy, but they will certainly help.
01:23This relief is welcome because it will take some of the pressure off millions of Australians with a mortgage.
01:30But this progress on interest rates, on inflation, on real wages and in the budget
01:35also puts us in good stead to focus even more substantially on the bigger structural issues in our economy today.
