Westpac rains pain on specufestors

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This is turning into a smash:

Effective on 30 June 2017, Westpac will reduce its variable rate interest rates for customers paying principal and interest on their owner occupier home loans by 8 basis points to 5.24% per annum (comparison rate 5.38% per annum*).

Westpac will also adjust interest only rates for variable home loans as follows:

  • Owner occupier interest only rate will increase by 34 basis points to 5.83% per annum (comparison rate 5.97% per annum*
  • Residential investment interest only rate will increase by 34 basis points to 6.30% per annum (comparison rate 6.43% per annum*)

The bank is also tightening income criteria.

Do not expect the rate cut to offset the hike which has now almost unwound the last four rate cuts for specufestors:

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.