RBA warns it could ‘raise rates tomorrow’ despite ‘furious’ public

The Reserve Bank is willing to call time on Australia’s battle with high inflation at any time, yet would continue to push interest rates higher and higher if necessary, the deputy governor has warned.Appearing on ABC’s 7:30 on Tuesday, Andrew Hauser avoided directly answering whether a rate hike later this month is inevitable, warning instead that the RBA could change tack quickly.It comes as Australians prepare for interest rates to reach a potential 15-year high as soon as the end of this month.Markets are pricing in a 66% chance of a rate hike on 29 September, after recent data for July showed underlying inflation had not cooled as expected when compared to June.“Of course we could raise interest rates sharply. We could do it tomorrow, we could do it next week, we could decide to no longer take seriously the full employment part of our objective and bring inflation down come hell or high water,” Mr Hauser said.“But it hasn’t been the board’s judgement that that is the appropriate stance.RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser says the bank has tough decisions ahead. Picture: Supplied“A consequence of that is inflation has been above target for a long period of time and at some point,...