Anthony Albanese has been summoned to parliament as the cost of living continues to rise.
Zoe McKenzie, a Liberal MP from Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, used Question Time to lash out at the Prime Minister.
“The government assured Australians that the budget would cut interest rates,” she said Thursday afternoon.
“When will the Prime Minister take responsibility for making things worse for Central Australia?”
Ms McKenzie, the new member of Flinders, cited a poll showing that 40 per cent of Australian home borrowers were struggling with their repayments.
The prime minister hit back, saying factors outside Australia had pushed up interest rates following the Reserve Bank’s 12th hike in 13 months last week.
Anthony Albanese has blamed global factors for Australia’s inflationary crisis, even as locally produced items have seen the biggest price increases (the prime minister is pictured drinking a beer in Vietnam)
“Of course the world is dealing with inflationary effects and therefore inflation affects interest rates,” Albanese told the House of Representatives.
But he said interest rates in other first world countries were even higher, citing the rates in each economy.
“Australian rates are lower than the UK at 4.5, the US at 5.25, Canada at 4.75 and New Zealand at 5.5.”
While Australia’s cash rate is lower by world standards, that’s cold comfort to borrowers.
An average borrower with a $600,000 mortgage will see their monthly variable amortization increase by another $97 to $3,730 on Friday, due to the RBA’s rate hike in June.
Annual repayments will be $17,088 since May 2022, based on a floating Commonwealth Bank interest rate rising from 2.29 percent to 6.34 percent, to reflect the RBA cash rate rising from a record low of 0, 1 percent to an 11-year high of 4.1 percent.
The RBA’s 12 rate has been rising since May 2022 are the most aggressive since 1989.
ANZ and NAB now both expect rates to rise to 4.6 percent in July and August, which would be the highest level since 2011.
All four major banks, including Commonwealth and Westpac, expect another 0.25 percentage point increase in July, which would bring the spot rate to 4.35 percent.
Annual inflation rose to 6.8 percent in April from 6.3 percent in March. But monthly consumer price index data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed locally produced items had the biggest, double-digit increases over the year, with dairy prices rising 14.5 percent (pictured a Woolworths shopper in the eastern suburbs of Australia). Sydney)
Annual inflation rose to 6.8 percent in April from 6.3 percent in March.
Monthly consumer price index data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that primarily locally produced items had the largest, double-digit increases over the year.
Electricity prices rose by 15.2 percent, prices of dairy products rose by 14.5 percent, followed by 11.9 percent for holidays and accommodation and 11.4 percent for bread and breakfast cereals.
By comparison, petrol rose a less severe 9.5 per cent, with Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe noting last week that crude oil prices had fallen following the sanctions against Russia.
“Oil prices have reversed much of the increase following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as have the prices of many base metals,” said Dr Lowe.
Unemployment fell to 3.6 percent in May from 3.7 percent in April, when 75,900 jobs were created.
ANZ revised its forecasts on Thursday, leading the RBA to hike rates in July and August.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers promised not to cut interest rates in his May 9 budget, but he argued that there would be “constraints to keep inflation under pressure” and that there would be reductions in electricity bills.
