Interest rate for most borrowers 'lower than average'

There is a lower than average interest rate for most borrowers, the Reserve Bank of Australia says.

The majority of borrowers have a lower than average interest rate, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

But the RBA believes the rates should be "closer than average", which is one reason why it has increased the cash rate by 0.25 per cent to 4.25 per cent at a Monetary Policy Decision meeting earlier this week.

Governor Glenn Stevens outlined the bank's positive and negative view of the country's current economical situation, which included noting that Aussie credit for housing "has been expanding at a solid pace".

There have been fewer instances of large grants for first-time buyers and because of an increase in interest rates new loan approvals for housing have "moderated" over the past few months.

Mr Stevens added: "Nonetheless, at this point the market for established dwellings is still characterised by considerable buoyancy, with prices continuing to increase in the early part of 2010."

He supported the RBA's view that the risk of economic downfall in the country has passed "some time ago" as another reason why the group is slowly increasing the cash rate – which it raised last month by 0.25 per cent from 3.75 to four per cent, which spurred the Commonwealth Bank into action.

It announced plans to up its rates on two savings accounts - the NetBank Saver and Business Online Saver – by 0.25 basis points.

And the Commonwealth Bank – which offers a range of credit cards - has taken a similar course of action after the rise this month by stating it will increase interest rates on a range of deposit and variable home loan accounts.

But elsewhere in the world there are still difficult credit conditions and "banks continue to face loan losses associated with the period of economic weakness", according to the RBA.

Nevertheless, this has improved as markets are now functioning "much better" than they were one year ago.

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