Reserve Bank governor facing another grilling by MPs
Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe will be back before Federal Parliament today to face further questioning over inflation, unemployment and rising interest rates.
He is set for three hours of questioning by the House Economics Committee from 9.30am after job figures released yesterday showed the unemployment rate in January rose from a near-historic low of 3.5 per cent to 3.7 per cent.
The ABS figures showed the number of unemployed Australians grew by 22,000.
READ MORE: Australia's unemployment rate rose to 3.7 per cent in January
Governor of the Reserve Bank Philip Lowe will appear before federal MPs for a second grilling in Parliament this week. (Photo: Alex Ellinghausen) Nine
Victoria and New South Wales were the hardest hit, with more than 60,000 jobs lost in those states.
Lowe has has flagged that unemployment is set to rise even further in the months ahead.
The Reserve Bank forecasts the unemployment rate will have to reach 4.5 per cent before inflation starts to slow to a manageable 3 per cent.
On Wednesday, Lowe appeared before a Senate Estimates committee where he was grilled about the nine consecutive interest rate rises and the impact on mortgage borrowers.
Many household budgets across the country have been stretched by a cost of living crisis and rising home loan repayments.
READ MORE: Unemployment three times higher than official statistics, pollster claims
The unemployment rate has gone up after the end of the Christmas retail season, Roy Morgan data shows. Louise Harris
Interest rates have risen sharply since May last year after the central bank started hiking the cash rate from a historic low of 0.10 per cent to the now 3.35 per cent.
The nine consecutive rate hikes have left borrowers scrambling to find money in the kitty for their mortgage repayments.
Yesterday another of the big four banks has boasted record profits as Australians battle their budget to afford mortgage repayments in light of skyrocketing interest rates.
NAB said the high interest rates as a result of the Reserve Bank of Australia trying to curb inflation had benefited its revenue.
The bank announced an 18.7 per cent rise to $2.15 billion in cash earnings for the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
On Wednesday the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced half-year profits jumped at to a record $5.15 billion, a nine per cent increase from the year earlier.
READ MORE: What is the fixed rate mortgage cliff, and how is it going to impact the Australian economy?
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