By
Loan Market Group has slammed the RBA for lifting interest rates today, saying it has put "a healthy housing market in jeopardy".
It noted that the RBA became the "first central bank of a major economy to raise its cash rate during the global financial crisis".
Loan Market Group COO Dean Rushton played down the impact it would have on households paying off an average home loan but said it would "hurt consumer and business confidence and possibly have an adverse impact on a national housing market which has so far weathered the global economic downturn.
"An increase of 0.25% means another $46 a month for someone repaying a $300,000 loan but it has a far more severe impact on the mentality of mortgage holders," he said.
"It will create an expectation that rates will rise again rapidly and that will have a knock on affect. It could deter people from upgrading their home, purchasing an investment property or renovating, and in the lead up to Christmas this impact could flow on to general spending."
Rushton said the economy would have been better prepared for the RBA to raise rates again in early 2010.
