The Latest Breaking News from the Reserve Bank

Why is the Reserve Bank refusing to cut interest rates when the US Federal Reserve is in the middle of an extended series of rate cuts?

The countries share a 4.1% unemployment rate. What other clues might indicate the political fate of Australia?

Without the energy rebates, electricity prices would have fallen over the past year by 2.7% instead of 15.8%

Lower petrol prices and an electricity rebate have contributed to a further fall in the quarterly measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index.

Electricity prices fell by 17.3% in the latest quarter, while automotive fuel also fell 6.7%, increasing the chance of near-term interest rate reductions

I am not going to be sad if more people having a job means I’ll have to wait a few more months before my mortgage repayments drop

Unemployment rate in September was 4.1% – making it unlikely the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates this year

Economists working on macroeconomic policy – things like taxes and spending, interest rates and border controls on flows of trade and money – often refer to a set of key relationships governments can influence. In the textbooks, each of those relationships is drawn as a curve in a graph.

The Albanese government has announced a first step in what it says is a crackdown on excessive card surcharges and threatened a ban on surcharges for debit cards from early 2026.