Australia news live: RBA hikes official cash rate to 4.6%, its highest level since 2011
Follow the day’s news live • Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast New South Wales police say they are investigating the suspicious deaths of two men in the state’s north. Police said they found the first man – who has since been identified as a 79-year-old – dead at a property on Summerland Way at Gurranang, near Grafton, on 13 September. And that’s equally important in the Reserve Bank’s mandate, dual mandate, which talks about maintaining full employment at the same time as they go for price stability, which means inflation in the target band. Well, it’s still lower than what we saw under Howard and Costello, is the first point. I think that’s pretty clear. And what we’ve seen in recent years is that it’s possible to have low and steady unemployment at the same time as we see inflation moderate to more normal levels. Continue reading...
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has defended his economic record on the eve of what is widely expected to be the fourth interest rate rise of 2026, as the Reserve Bank remains concerned about persistent inflation. The RBA board is poised to hike the cash rate from 4.35% to 4.6% on Tuesday, which would be the fourth increase in 2026 and push typical home loan interest rates to 6.5%. Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Chalmers emphasised the factors contributing to inflation, saying that Australia was performing well considering what was going on in the world, particularly in the Middle East.
We have a lot going for us and we’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure that in these difficult global circumstances Australia continues to out-perform the world. We have a big inflation challenge in our economy. It’s made much worse by decisions taken on the other side of the world. From an economic point of view this war in Iran has been an absolute disaster for Australian families, bec