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From the SMH:
BANKS are battling it out for fixed-rate mortgages as expectations grow of a cut to official cash rates next month.
Westpac has become the latest to cut its fixed home loan rates. This morning it cuts 20 basis points off its one-year fixed loans to 5.69 per cent.
It has also slashed 30 basis points from its three-year fixed loans, taking the new rate to 5.54 per cent.
Westpac matches its big four rivals on one-year fixed rates, while undercutting Commonwealth Bank over three years and longer.
Damn! That’s getting cheap and implies the banks see at least two rate cuts coming. Here’s the relationship between fixed and floating rates over time. Fixed rates have been leading variable lower for a year now:
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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
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