Australia Increases Benchmark Interest Rate to 3.75%
Australia’s central bank today raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point for an unprecedented third straight month.
The actual thing that was running through my mind was that this isn’t going to help people have a good Christmas. As more money now will be going into their home loans and less money on presents.
Once again this is confirming our views that the first signs of inflation are on the way. Even for a smaller economy and smaller country like Australia. I am the first to admit we have our fair share of problems and our government at times is more like watching a circus de sole act. But there are many countries watching what happened here here today.
Mortgage Repayments
This year’s interest-rate increases add about A$150 to monthly repayments on an average A$300,000 home loan, and may prompt consumers to trim spending that surged in the first half of the year after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government distributed more than A$20 billion in cash handouts to households.
Mr. Kevin ‘fuddy duddy’ Rudd cleverly put us Aussies into debt overnight by copying Obama and spreading money all over the place when it clearly wasnt needed. Funny how when I ask around the stimulus money was bascially spent on Beer, wine, gambling and then maybe some gas to fill the car. So did it go back into the real economy, my thoughts would be NO.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months especially with this fresh Dubai news that has hit the markets also.
