Media Statement - 21st June 2007
Today the Reserve Bank has released data showing a new record high in the level of household income being lost to mortgage interest repayments.
The Reserve Bank Bulletin shows households are losing a record 9.5 per cent of their disposable income to mortgage interest repayments. This figure is:
- The highest in our history – 55 per cent above its highest point under Paul Keating of 6.1 per cent
- nearly 80 per cent higher since interest rates started rising under John Howard in 2002
- up from 9.3 per cent at the start of the year.
John Howard can wheel out all the denials and excuses he likes, but he cannot escape the cold, hard facts about his interest rate record.
Eight interest rate rises despite his promise to keep rates at record lows are hitting Australian families harder than ever.
Yet John Howard arrogantly claims that “Australian working families have never been better off” – it just shows how deeply out of touch he has fallen with large sections of the community.
The reality is that Mr Howard’s eight rate rises, together with soaring petrol and childcare costs, are putting many Australian families under serious financial strain.
And as Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens warned just last week, higher inflation – and with it the risk of a ninth rate rise – is in the pipeline unless the productive capacity of the economy is stepped up.
