{"id":1193081,"date":"2026-09-08T10:58:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1193081\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:58:38","slug":"rba-deputy-governor-andrew-hauser-knows-public-is-furious-with-central-bank-over-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1193081\/","title":{"rendered":"RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser knows public is ‘furious’ with central bank over inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reserve Bank’s Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser knows Australians are “furious” about inflation and while he is determined to bring it down, he says the RBA is not at the point where it has to take more drastic action.<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Hauser told 7.30 that inflation is the major problem for Australia’s central bank, as he acknowledged Australians are struggling with the continued high cost of living and rising interest rates.<\/p>\n

He indicated those rates could rise higher in the coming months.<\/p>\n

While Mr Hauser defended the Australian economy as “doing quite well” on issues of unemployment and real household incomes, he signalled out the continuing scourge of inflation as the nation’s biggest problem.<\/p>\n

Headline inflation rose to 3.5 per cent in the year to July,<\/a> despite the continued efforts of the RBA and government to bring it down.<\/p>\n

\"Reserve<\/p>\n

The four major banks are all forecasting the RBA will lift interest rates by the end of the year. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

Mr Hauser acknowledged the anger and frustration in the community.<\/p>\n

“People are furious about inflation,” he said, calling it the RBA’s “one big problem”.<\/p>\n

“I understand why. It’s unfair. It hits people on low incomes, it damages price signals, it makes the job of companies difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What [people] want us to do is our job and bring inflation down.<\/p>\n

“Everywhere I go, I hear cost, cost, cost, inflation, inflation, inflation, and that’s our responsibility. We have to put that right.<\/p>\n

“When people go to the supermarket every week, they look at the price of the goods they’re buying, they compare them to where they were a few years ago and they say, ‘Hell, what’s going on here?’.<\/p>\n

“That is a very lasting and pervasive issue that is a function of the pick-up in inflation after COVID and will take years for us to fully resolve.”<\/p>\n

As to why Australia is still struggling with inflation, Mr Hauser says it is a three-headed monster.<\/p>\n

“One is the Middle East and the ongoing crisis there, one is a really unexpected global boom driven by AI, and one is the weakness of the supply potential of the Australian economy.”<\/p>\n

Rate hike not ‘inevitable’ but likely<\/p>\n

One solution to fixing inflation could be hiking interest rates dramatically, but Mr Hauser said the RBA was unlikely to do that just yet.<\/p>\n

“We could raise interest rates sharply [and] we could do it tomorrow,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“We could decide, ‘You know what? We no longer take seriously the full employment part of our objective. We’re going to bring inflation down come hell or high water.'”<\/p>\n

Mr Hauser said Australia was not at that point just yet but gave a strong indication that the central bank is contemplating hiking interest rates this month as the economy continues to grow \u2014 albeit slowly \u2014 and the labour market remains tight.<\/p>\n

He denied a rate hike was “inevitable” but said the bank was very focused on bringing inflation down.<\/p>\n

“Inflation is too high and that’s why we raised interest rates three times at the beginning of this year,” Mr Hauser said.<\/p>\n

“The question now, frankly, for us is have we done enough or is more needed?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Australia’s four major banks are all forecasting the central bank will lift interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4.6 per cent by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Mr Hauser’s comments came hours after his RBA colleague, assistant governor Sarah Hunter, said the central bank “may well have to raise interest rates” if it senses inflation is stronger than its forecasts.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The RBA board will meet at the end of September to decide whether to move or hold the cash rate \u2014 currently sitting at 4.35 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New inflation figures, however, will only become public a day after that crucial decision \u2014 on September 30.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Mr Hauser says he expects house prices to fall “a little bit more”. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)<\/p>\n

Asked about the current downturn in the housing market<\/a>, Mr Hauser said the bank was watching it closely as the price adjustment will have an impact on consumption growth.<\/p>\n

He expected prices to fall “a little bit more” but said current conditions in the housing market are not a key factor in the bank’s forecasts.<\/p>\n

“While house prices play a role in the economy, they’re not really as big as some of the things we talked about earlier in the conversation, global growth trends, productivity, the risk environment globally, in the Middle East and so on and so forth,” he said.<\/p>\n

Persistent inflation eroding trust in central banks<\/p>\n

Compared to nations including the UK, Canada and the US, Australia has been slow to bring inflation down.<\/p>\n

The RBA projects inflation will return to its target by early 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, the central bank began cutting interest rates before being forced to change course this year just before the war in Iran started.<\/p>\n

Mr Hauser said that at the time it looked like a “sweet spot” but that the RBA had consistently updated its position when needed.<\/p>\n

\"Michele<\/p>\n

Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)<\/p>\n

“When the facts change, we change our position,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We raised interest rates earlier than other central banks and … we stand ready to do so again if we need to do.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Hauser rejected the notion that the RBA was not prepared to answer a question on the role of government spending in the economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are an equal opportunity monetary policymaker. A dollar of demand, whether it comes from the government or it comes from the private sector or it comes from overseas, has roughly the same effect on the outlook for inflation as a dollar for demand from anywhere else,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take government policy as given. It’s part of our judgement about the outlook for inflation, but it doesn’t have a special status.”<\/p>\n

Could AI boom be a bust?<\/p>\n

Mr Hauser said a recent trip to the US made him more concerned about the global economic outlook as he defended the RBA’s longer-term move on inflation.<\/p>\n

“We are doing it over a longer period than some other central banks have done. And we’re doing it in order to try to protect the jobs gains that happened during COVID,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We will raise interest rates further than otherwise we would need to do so. We’re not at that point yet, but some of these upside risks to inflation are certainly on our mind, and I come back from the US a bit more worried about them than I did when I went.”<\/p>\n

The Deputy Governor’s recent trip to the US saw him look firsthand at a productivity bonanza and an investment boom in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Mr Hauser says only time will tell if investments in data centres will pay off. (ABC News: Daniel Irving)<\/p>\n

While he said he could see the adoption of the technology, he warned the jury was still out on whether AI companies would all make a fortune \u2014 and said the million-dollar question on AI was how to value a future income stream deriving from it.<\/p>\n

“Much of it may be a failure,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Much of it may turn out to be a wrongful allocation of technology to tasks that won’t actually solve its purpose, but there is an enormous vibrancy to that process.”<\/p>\n

“Most of the valuations assume that these companies are going to make a fortune. In practise, several of them won’t.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Watch <\/strong>7.30<\/strong><\/a>, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on <\/strong>ABC iview<\/strong><\/a> and ABC TV<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contact 7.30<\/p>\n

Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reserve Bank’s Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser knows Australians are “furious” about inflation and while he is determined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1193082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3090],"tags":[62800,51,1700,476,52790,3717,3716,33302,16921,16,15],"class_list":["post-1193081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-andrew-hauser","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-inflation","tag-interest-rate","tag-michele-bullock","tag-rba","tag-reserve-bank","tag-reserve-bank-of-australia","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117235073109428697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1193082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}