News

Reaction to the RBA's decision to keep interest rates on hold has come in thick and fast, with commentators labelling it as a missed opportunity to boost the property market.

National house prices have seen their first turnaround since the back end of 2010, but this year will be one of "mixed outcomes", it has been claimed.

AUD/USD – Short term trend UP, Long term trend DOWN The AUD/USD has strengthened further as the market appetite for risk returns with the US economy posting better than expected employment numbers last Friday night surprising the market and the Federal Reserve.

More and more Australians are looking for a better deal on their home loan, with October data from the ABS revealing that refinancing activity jumped by 17% over 12 months and 5% over three months.

As we close out 2011 and reflect on the year that was, the only thing that appears predictable in our current economic environment is unpredictability. Part of the reason for this is that it is near impossible to read the minds of policy makers, but attempting to do so, see to occupy an inmsordinate amount of the time of financial commentators and economists. Every week we are sent analyses of the interest rate environment by bank economists and it is interesting to look back at these memo's to see how quickly prevailing view of interest rate movements can change at the proverbial drop of a hat.