Classic line from Macquarie's Brian Redican today:
"With the RBA apparently giving the nod that they are ready to pull the rate hike trigger in October, the more interesting question for us is whether this is a one-off, or the start of another series of rate hikes. One-off rate hikes are exceedingly rare. As a former colleague use to say, "rate hikes are like cockroaches; if you see one, there are usually more lurking around". And it's not hard to understand why. If the desired level of interest rates was only 25bps away from where rates are currently sitting, then only a pedantic central banker would bother shifting policy. But despite one-off rate hikes being rare, they have occurred. Indeed, in 2005 that is exactly what happened. In our view, the inability of the RBA to hike rates more aggressively during that period, as well as in mid-2007, may well be key to understanding why the RBA has decided to lift rates in October, as well as provide a clue as to how they will approach policy in the coming months."
