Relentless consumer spending risks triggering more RBA rate hikes for struggling mortgage holders

RBA Governor Michele Bullock announced a November rate hike. Picture: Nikki Short ANALYSIS The RBA board must feel as though it’s being gaslighted. Whenever it hikes the cash rate, Australians are up in arms, pleading that we can’t possibly afford to pay any more on our mortgages than we already do. We also can’t afford rents, or filling cars with petrol, or buying enough groceries, or paying our medical bills. Sometimes, these pleas are enough to cause a ripple of concern to run through the central bank’s boardroom. A board member’s steely glare of fiscal determination may soften slightly into an almost sympathetic furrowed brow. On occasion, there may even be a split decision on whether the rate should really be raised. And then, no sooner do we finish making our case, than we go out and throw our money at the next big spending event. MORE:The $3k secret RBA doesn’t want Aussies to know On Melbourne Cup Day, for example, Finder research estimated we would gamble $351 million as a nation. That’s right. On the very day the central bank was preparing to hand down a fifth rate hike for the year, we were throwing eye-watering sums of money into the abyss. Large crowds gather to spend ...