First published 3 Nov 2026, 12:03pm
Welcome to our live coverage of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) monetary policy board’s second-last meeting of the year. The interest rate will be announced at 2.30pm, followed by a press conference where RBA governor Michele Bullock will address the media.
Australians are awaiting an announcement at 2:30pm today from Reserve Bank of Australia on whether to increase interest rates, with RBA governor Michele Bullock to speak afterwards at a press conference scheduled for 3:30pm. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard
The RBA’s executives have undertaken a range of different media appearances in recent weeks, clocking up a higher than usual number of public appearances since the MPB’s last meeting at the end of September.
Deputy governor Andrew Hauser and assistant governor Sarah Hunter have used television and event appearances to send a clear message to households that Australia’s economic situation is likely to get worse before it improves.
Speaking at a Citi conference, Mr Hauser said the RBA was “facing hard choices” as it struggled to accurately forecast the path ahead for interest rates. He added risks to high inflation were rising, adding the outlook now is “materially worse” than the RBA had expected back in August.
Dr Hunter used an appearance on 60 Minutes at the start of last week to defend the bank’s excessive tightening, acknowledging increasing oil prices did not bode well for the trajectory of interest rates.
Read more: RBA hints at more rate hikes flagging unravelling public trust concerns
A crunch of RBA rate decisions between 1990 and 2026 reveals November is the most common month for the bank to hike rates, but when did households last face five rate hikes in one calendar year?
While today’s decision from the RBA could put the cash rate back to a position not seen since 2008, it was far more recently that the bank went down such a tough path of tightening.
The bumpy economic recovery from Covid saw eight consecutive rate hikes in Australia in 2022, taking the cash rate from 0.1% to 3.1% in the space of eight months. This was followed by five more rate hikes in 2023, spaced out in a similar pattern to what the MPB has decided on during 2026.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday set to hit later this month to coincide with the start of traditional Christmas demand, the bank is likely to take action now to deter households from further adding to inflation with seasonal spending.
Read more: Four rate rises later, here’s how Australia’s housing market has changed
Hello and welcome to our coverage of this afternoon’s cash rate decision, which marks the end of the penultimate Reserve Bank monetary policy board (MPB) meeting for 2026. There are just a couple of hours to go until we find out whether interest rates will be raised again or remain on hold until at least early December.
Forecasts have painted a largely mixed picture in the short five-week gap since the last interest rate decision, though another month of high inflation data and comments from the bank’s senior executives have seen the needle swinging firmly over to expectation for a hike.
Follow along in the lead up to the 2:30pm announcement and keep up to date with the latest expert commentary, data, and forecasts. We’ll also set the scene with a wider breakdown on Australia’s economic position coming into today’s meeting and what we can expect from the MPB.
We’ll look at how mortgage holders, renters, owner occupiers and investors at every stage of the property journey will be affected by a rate hike or a rate hold as we approach the final 10 weeks of a transformative year for interest rates.
Read more: Latest RBA clues leave door open for pre-Christmas rate hike
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