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March 6th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Updated: 10:15, Wednesday March 7, 2012
Retailers and the housing industry are disappointed by the RBA’s rate decision, while the Bank of Queensland has lifted its variable home loan rate.
But BoQ buckled on Tuesday and raised its standard variable home loan rate by 10 basis points.
The bank lifted its lending rate despite the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) keeping its cash rate at 4.25 per cent at its monthly board meeting on Tuesday, to the disappointment of the housing industry and retailers.
BoQ chief executive Stuart Grimshaw said he was disappointed but cited increasing funding costs, saying ‘competition is fierce for local deposits’.
‘To remain competitive BoQ needs to provide strong rate returns on our term deposits,’ he said in a statement.
‘BoQ has covered the higher cost of funding for a number of months to provide our lending customers with certainty.’
Comment was being sought from Mr Swan.
Financial comparison website RateCity said 45 lenders had raised their variable home loan rates by an average of 12 basis points in February, including the big four banks.
‘The rates that borrowers pay have been creeping away from the Reserve Bank’s cash rate movements since the global financial crisis,’ RateCity CEO Damian Smith said in as statement.
‘Last month proves that all variable-rate mortgage holders are vulnerable to rate hikes, regardless of what the RBA does,’ he said.
He warned borrowers, particularly first-home buyers, that they need to be prepared for higher costs on their repayments this year and should expect frequent small changes in rates, perhaps as often as every month.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) questioned the wisdom of the RBA’s rate decision given the ‘considerable pain’ some businesses are facing.
The association’s chief economist Harley Dale said the earlier expectation of further official interest rate cuts entering 2012 has been replaced by businesses and households counting the potential cost of further hikes by retail banks.
‘The fractured state of economic conditions in Australia means there is considerable pain being felt by small and medium-sized businesses, as well as some large businesses, which tends to get lost in a general focus on aggregate economic outcomes,’ Dr Dale said in a statement.
‘Against this backdrop, a rate cut today would have been the appropriate action to take.’
Retailers were equally unhappy with the central bank, saying the sector will continue to experience slow growth.
‘With little to spark a return to stores in the early part of 2012, the sector will not be expecting positive retail figures for some months as the slowest quarter for the sector continues at a snail’s pace,’ Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) CEO Margy Osmond said in a statement.
‘The cash rate must come down, and by a significant amount, so Australians may feel confident enough to return to spending.’
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