What goes up: Miles leads the charge for Reserve Bank to cut interest rates next week
Most Australians – including three state premiers – would like to see interest rates fall when the central bank meets next week for its first monetary policy meeting of the year, a federal frontbencher says.
Jason Clare was responding to a question on whether it was appropriate for the Labor premiers of Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia to ādemandā a rate cut ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia announcing its decision on Tuesday.
āI think all Aussies want to see interest rates go down,ā the education minister told Sevenās Sunrise program on Friday.
āIt is a matter for RBA, though.
āTo get them to cut interest rates we have to get inflation down ā thatās happening.ā
Earlier this week, hopes that rates will soon fall were fanned by Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing annual inflation eased to 4.1 per cent in the December quarter, down from 5.4 per cent in the September quarter.
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On Thursday, Queensland Premier Steven Miles implored the central bank to cut rates.
āThe Reserve Bank needs to start cutting interest rates now to take pressure off households,ā he posted on social media.
āAnd thereās no rule the banks canāt cut their rates first. Many of them lifted their rates before the RBA,ā he added. His comments were mirrored on Thursday by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and WA counterpart Roger Cook.
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told Nineās Today show on Friday the premiers would be better off concentrating on the issues in their states like ambulance ramping and youth crime.
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āThe independence of the Reserve Bank is important so that thereās not political interference ā¦ they should, you know, concentrate on fixing up their own problems,ā he said.
Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley said the premiersā ādemandā amounted to āeconomic idiocyā and was āquite crazyā.
However, Mr Dutton said the coalition would also like to see rates fall.
āSo yes, I want to see them come down as quickly as possible, but the Reserve Bank is going to deal with that,ā he said.
The RBA has been hiking interest rates since May 2022 in a bid to cool inflationary pressures in the economy.
So far, economists are broadly betting there will be no change on Tuesday to the cash interest rate, which currently sits at 4.35 per cent.
āIf you can get inflation down, then weāll see interest rates go down,ā Mr Clare said.
āWe know there are a lot of Aussies that are doing it tough and would like to see their interest rates go down.ā
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