RBA interest rates live updates: Homeowners face nervous wait on post-call commentary after today’s hold

On the first day of Christmas, Michele Bullock gave to me ... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Zilch. Squat. Bugger all. To completely plagiarise, then bastardise, the words of Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi”: No rate cut for you!

And don’t for one second believe they’ll be any festive cheer next year either. The new year could in fact bring (sharp intact of breath everyone) ... rate hikes.

It’s your typical nightmare before Christmas ... just without the warm and fuzzy big-screen happy ending.

It’s a near certainty that the central bank will keep the official cash rate at 3.6 per cent today after the recent inflation surprise — core inflation — which strips out price volatility — hit 3.3 per cent for the year to October.

That’s now back outside the bank’s 2 to 3 per cent sweet spot. Overall, prices were up 3.8 per cent for the year — the worst set of consumer price pressures since June 2024.

So, after three cuts throughout 2025, the official cash rate is expected to remain on hold for much of 2026.

The big question now is what happens next? Some suggest the RBA moved too quickly and too far this year, and that a hike is now a real possibility.

For now, the RBA is likely to tread water and wait and see.

Homeowners will be more interested in what tone the RBA takes in its decision statement, and then what Michele Bullock has to say at her post-call presser.

In the meantime, maybe ease up on the online Christmas shopping. You could need the spare cash next year.

Above-inflation cost rises over the past year may have more seniors hoping to maintain a decent standard of living in retirement thinking about reining in their spending this Christmas.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s latest in-depth examination of the price of funding a so-called “comfortable” lifestyle when they retire shows the cost for couples is now $76,505 a year — a new record, and up from $75,319 in the June quarter.

For a single, it’s $54,240, up from $53,289.

For comparison, Centrelink’s full annual rate of the age pension is $46,202 for couples, and $30,646 for singles.

The cost of a comfortable retirement includes the best health insurance you can buy, fast internet and streaming services, an above-average car, regular leisure activities, occasional takeaway and restaurant meals, frequent upgrades to your wardrobe, home repairs or upgrades, annual domestic travel, and splashing out on a big overseas trip every seven years.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Australia’s brutal cost-of-living pressures are tipped to continue until at least 2032 when purchasing power finally gets back to pre-COVID levels.

In a grim forecast, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the post-pandemic surge in inflation means it will now take more than a decade for workers to catch up.

“If wages continue to grow at their current pace and inflation stays in the RBA target zone we wouldn’t get back to wages having the same purchasing power in 2020 until 2032,” he said.

This is based on wage growth of about 3.4 per cent and inflation falling back within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target range of between 2 to 3 per cent inflation growth.

In other words, Dr Oliver says the average 25-year-old worker in 2020 won’t have the same purchasing power until they turn 37.

READ MORE HERE ...