Don’t cry for retirees over low interest rates

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Alan Kohler has published a detailed article at The ABC decrying the impact that record low deposit rates is having on retirees, claiming that “retirees are collateral damage” in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) war against low inflation:

I think retirees are mostly just collateral damage in the war against low inflation. They happen to be in the way of the RBA’s efforts to get borrowers to spend and/or borrow more, the idea being that there are fewer retirees being impoverished and spending less than there are borrowers spending more…

RBA Governor Philip Lowe says interest rates are likely to stay where they are until 2024; it looks like being a long winter.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.