Australia news live: inflation figures to give interest rates clue; verdict due in Struhs murder trial
Australia news live: inflation figures to give interest rates clue; verdict due in Struhs murder trial
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Mortgage-holders will be about $8000 better off on average if a slowdown in inflation paves the way for the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut rates as expected, AAP reports. Data to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday is widely tipped to show core inflation for the December quarter was substantially lower than the RBA’s forecasts.
With underlying inflation moving sustainably back to target and Australia’s economy growing at its slowest rate since the 1990s - outside the pandemic - the door should be opened to an interest rate cut in February, Deloitte Access Economics Partner Stephen Smith said.
On the other hand, tightness in the labour market, elevated government spending and a falling Australian dollar were militating against a cut. But Mr Smith still expects 75 basis points of cuts in 2025 followed by a further 75 basis points in 2026. “By the end of the rate-cutting cycle, a household with an average-sized mortgage and a variable mortgage rate would be around $8000 better off in today’s dollars,” he said.
Read more in our preview story. The verdict in a mammoth trial of 14 members of a Toowoomba religious sect accused of causing the death of an eight-year-old member with diabetes is expected to be handed down in Queensland today. Elizabeth Struhs died on 6 or 7 January 2022, allegedly of diabetic ketoacidocis due to not being provided insulin.
