Australia Raises Interest Rates For Second Straight Month
Last month, the Australians became the first of the G20 countries to raise interest rates since the financial crisis began in 2008.
Today they've done it again, matching last month's 0.25% increase, now pegging rates there at the dizzy heights of 3.5%.
That certainly looks a lot better than rates in the UK, EU or US and is likely to see plenty of interest in the Australian dollar.
"With the risk of serious economic contraction in Australia now having passed, the Board's view is that it is prudent to lessen gradually the degree of monetary stimulus that was put in place when the outlook appeared to be much weaker", said the Reserve Bank of Australia.
They also hinted that more rate rises may be on the way. That might be bad news for Australian farmers in the midst of the wheat harvest, as it will dent the competitiveness of their product on the export market.
One Australian dollar gets you around 90 US cents today, twelve months ago it was worth only 60 cents.
Today they've done it again, matching last month's 0.25% increase, now pegging rates there at the dizzy heights of 3.5%.
That certainly looks a lot better than rates in the UK, EU or US and is likely to see plenty of interest in the Australian dollar.
"With the risk of serious economic contraction in Australia now having passed, the Board's view is that it is prudent to lessen gradually the degree of monetary stimulus that was put in place when the outlook appeared to be much weaker", said the Reserve Bank of Australia.
They also hinted that more rate rises may be on the way. That might be bad news for Australian farmers in the midst of the wheat harvest, as it will dent the competitiveness of their product on the export market.
One Australian dollar gets you around 90 US cents today, twelve months ago it was worth only 60 cents.