By Brad Smith on Thursday, February 25, 2010 2:08 PM

With the Reserve Bank opting to leave interest rates at 3.75% in its February meeting, all eyes now turn to the March 2nd RBA Board meeting, and the question of whether we'll see rates left as they are or perhaps lifted by 25 or even 50 basis points. Despite recent strong indications from Reserve Bank Governor Glen Stevens that there would be a number of rate increases in 2010, most pundits seem to suggest that the March board meeting will opt to leave things as they are for another month.

Typically the Reserve Bank makes its rate decisions based around inflationary expectations and with inflation tipped to drop back into its target band of 2-3%, this could help keep rates steady at 3.75 per cent for another month.

Chief economist at UBS, Scott Haslem, was today quoted in The Age suggesting "We expect a 'less now, more later' bias to the RBA moves,". This was supported by Helen Kevans, a senior economist at JPMorgan, also in The Age today who said " ... Read More »

By Brad Smith on Tuesday, February 02, 2010 1:46 PM

The RBA has just concluded their February 2010 meeting and resolved to keep interest rates on hold for another month.

The decision has surprised some, with most pundits predicting that the late 2009 trend of 3 consecutive rate increases would continue into the new year with a further quarter percent rise. The central bank however cited excessive hikes by the banks in response to the December RBA increase as one of the reasons for maintaining the status quo.

No doubt an increasingly mortgage stressed public will be breathing somewhat of a sigh of relief with the cash rate maintained at 3.75%.