Sally Tindall

I do think that we can look to overseas and get some clues about what might be ahead of us.

However, we've got to remember that Australia does have a unique set of circumstances and challenges as well.

And so it's not, you know...

are set in stone that the UK will even go into recession.

But certainly if they do, it doesn't mean that we will automatically follow suit.

One of the most interesting things to remember, particularly when you're looking at the US and New Zealand, we are more sensitive to rate hikes than some other economies.

Why?

Well, there's two reasons for that.

One is that fewer of us are on fixed rate loans.

And so we feel these rate hikes far more quickly than you do over in the US.

We're fixing...

for 15 to 30 years is incredibly popular, or even over in New Zealand where the majority of borrowers are on fixed loans.

At the moment, we estimate that there's around 38% of borrowers, home loan borrowers, are on fixed rate loans and the rest are on variable and feeling each rate hike

as they roll in.

The second reason would be that we are, in some cases, some of us who bought recently, potentially with small deposits, took on large loans compared to our incomes, we're up to our eyeballs in debt.

So that could mean that we need fewer rate hikes to get the inflation problem in hand.

The RBA has alluded to this in what they've said in speeches and things like that.

Well, I think that the RBA and Governor Lowe have been doing a pretty good job in what has been unprecedented and in many cases, very difficult circumstances.

I mean, no one really knew what was around the corner when COVID first hit.

Yes, the RBA cut the cash rate significantly.