The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifts interest rates by 0.25 of a percentage point, taking the cash rate target to 3.1 per cent.
It was the bank’s eighth straight rate rise since it started lifting the cash rate from a record low of 0.1 per cent in early May.
The cash rate is now at its highest level in a decade, since November 2012, when it was 3.25 per cent.
While some economists had been looking for hints that the Reserve Bank might be considering a pause in raising rates, or even that the cash rate might have peaked, the bank’s governor Philip Lowe delivered an almost identical statement to last month.
“The board expects to increase interest rates further over the period ahead, but it is not on a pre-set course,” he noted after the meeting.
“It is closely monitoring the global economy, household spending and wage and price-setting behaviour.
“The size and timing of future interest rate increases will continue to be determined by the incoming data and the board’s assessment of the outlook for inflation and the labour market.”
The increase will add around $75 to the monthly repayments of a household with a $500,000 mortgage debt on a 25-year term.
However, mortgage borrowers are all but guaranteed at least one month of reprieve from further rate rises over summer, with the RBA board taking its traditional break from scheduled meetings in January.
More to come.