Reserve Bank boss APOLOGISES to Australians who took out mortgages after he promised no rate rises until 2024 – but instead hit them with supersized hikes
- Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has issued an apology to borrowers
Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has apologised to borrowers who took out a mortgage expecting interest rates to stay at a record-low of 0.1 per cent.
‘I’m certainly sorry if people listened to what we’d said and acted on what we’d said and now regret what they had done,’ he told a Senate economics hearing on Monday.
‘That’s regrettable and I’m sorry that happened.’
Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has issued an apology to borrowers who took out a mortgage expecting interest rates to stay at a record-low of 0.1 per cent
Dr Lowe last year repeatedly promised the cash rate would stay on hold at 0.1 per cent until 2024 ‘at the earliest’ but since May, borrowers have copped seven consecutive interest rate rises.
The cash rate is now at a nine-year high of 2.85 per cent with economists expecting another 0.25 percentage point rate rise in December.
A borrower with an average $600,000 mortgage has seen their monthly repayments skyrocket by $839 just six months, to $3,145.
The inflation rate of 7.3 per cent is more than double the RBA’s 2 to 3 per cent target and was expected to remain outside that range until 2025.
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