Australia’s banks have only passed on about three-quarters of the increase in interest rates since May 2022 to depositors, while debt repayments by borrowers still have further to rise, a senior Reserve Bank official says.
The RBA’s cash rate has risen by 400 basis points since the central bank began lifting rates. The increase for deposits – roughly 300 basis points – is in line with previous phases of interest rate rise, and compares favourably with New Zealand and the US where the proportion passed by banks has been 50% and 35%, according to the assistant governor Christopher Kent.
