Consecutive rate rises indicative of ‘serious’ RBA and government ‘policy failures’

The Reserve Bank was a bit late to the party as there were plenty of signs at the end of last year and early this year for the need to raise interest rates, Centre for Independent Studies' Simon Cowan says. "We saw other central banks taking those sort of actions," Mr Cowan told Sky News host Chris Kenny. "To an extent the uncertainty around COVID justified a degree of wait and see. "But the fact the RBA has had to raise rates four times in four consecutive meetings and at the 50bps level at the last three is an indication of some fairly serious policy failures, I think, both at the RBA and in the government over the course of the last 12 months."