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RBA

A collection of 15 issues

Will the RBA regulate the role of AI in making payments?

Artificial intelligence may soon do more than recommend what you buy. It could make the payment as well. This emerging system is called agentic commerce. A consumer could tell an AI agent to find the cheapest flight to Melbourne, choose an acceptable departure time and complete the purchase — without the

Private credit is growing rapidly. Why isn't the RBA worried about a financial crisis?

Private credit now provides around 10% of Australian business debt, yet represents less than 2% of financial-system assets. The RBA says that helps explain why investor losses need not become a banking crisis.

Explainer: Why Apple Pay is the focus of RBA regulatory supervision

Apple Pay makes paying easier, but behind every tap sits a network of banks, card schemes and technology. The RBA is examining whether control of the iPhone, wallet and customer interface affects competition in Australia's payments system.

A 20% house price fall would leave only 5% of mortgages underwater

Australian dwelling values are already 5.2% below their peak. Yet the RBA estimates that even a further 20% fall would leave only around 5% of mortgages underwater. The reason lies in Australia's unusually large housing-equity buffers.

Australia’s inflation data now tells two quite different stories

August’s inflation shock came from fuel. But beneath the headline, three-quarters of Australia’s annual inflation contribution remains concentrated in non-tradables.

Job vacancies point to a softer private labour market

Australian job vacancies fell again in August, but the headline conceals a sharper decline in private-sector labour demand. Vacancies per unemployed worker have almost halved from their 2022 peak.

Explainer: Why Australia's 23-year card surcharge experiment is ending

Australia deliberately enabled card surcharging in 2003 to improve payment price signals and merchant bargaining power. Twenty-three years later, the RBA has concluded that the system no longer works as intended.

Household spending flat as RBA weighs rate rise in a few hours

Household spending stalled in August after strong gains in June and July. The result gives the RBA some evidence demand is slowing, but underlying spending and inflation remain firm.

Background to the RBA decision today at 2.30pm

The RBA meets tomorrow with underlying inflation at 3.6%, unemployment at 4.6% and financial markets expecting another interest-rate increase. Here are the key economic numbers.

RBA links poor productivity to inflation

Australia's productivity fell 0.2% in 2025–26. The RBA says weak productivity lowers the economy's growth speed limit, while businesses are also reporting the burden of continually changing regulation.

Australia’s $288 billion-a-day financial plumbing

The RBA’s RTGS system settles about $288 billion per business day. This explainer shows what that figure means, why it is so large, and how it compares with NPP payments, card spending, wages and GDP.

Household spending rebound makes the RBA’s job harder

Household spending has risen strongly for three consecutive months, with discretionary expenditure now growing faster than spending on essentials.

The strange death of Australia’s standard variable mortgage rate

RBA Table F5 is a monthly dataset of indicator lending rates. In plain English, that means it reports the headline rates lenders advertise across products such as small business lending, housing loans and credit cards. Within the mortgage series, two terms matter. A standard variable rate is the lender’s