Household wealth in September recorded its third largest quarterly decline since the Australian Bureau of Statistics began keeping records in 1989. And wealth is likely to keep falling in the coming quarters, as the lagged effects of interest rate hikes flow through.
As interest rates creep north, advisers extoll the virtue of investing away from the family home and into a diversified suite of assets.
In its latest quarterly statement on monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of Australia declared its preparedness to “ease monetary policy further if needed”.
The unwillingness of the major (and other) banks to immediately cut their headline mortgage rates by as much as the Reserve Bank cuts its cash rate always attracts bad press, as well as condemnation from treasurers and prime ministers.
