Australian interest rates at 9-year high!

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to continue the tightening process at its October meeting in order to combat inflation.

The bank increased its policy rate by 25 basis points to 2.60 percent. With this rate hike, the policy rate in the country rose to the highest level since July 2013.

The market was expecting a stronger interest rate hike. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted that the RBA would raise interest rates to 2.80 percent.

With the latest decision, the policy rate in the country was increased in the 5th successive meeting. However, with this meeting, the 50 basis point increase series that had been going on for four meetings came to an end.

A sell-off in Australian assets followed the lower-than-expected rate hike. The Australian dollar fell as much as 1%.

Central Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe pointed out that interest rates were raised significantly in a short time and said that the bank is determined to return inflation to the target and will do what is necessary to achieve this.