Australia news LIVE: RBA flags more hikes as interest rates hit 10-year high; government to provide Turkey with $10m in aid after devastating earthquake

Key posts

  • RBA acknowledges household squeeze, but says more rate rises to come
  • Hopes fade for quake survivors
  • This morning’s headlines at a glance

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RBA acknowledges household squeeze, but says more rate rises to come

Households are feeling a painful squeeze from interest rate rises, but the Reserve Bank has warned of more to come as it fights to bring down inflation – sparking fears Australia could enter a recession later this year.

At its first meeting of the year, the RBA board lifted the official cash rate by 0.25 of a percentage point to a fresh 10-year high of 3.35 per cent – the ninth consecutive increase since it began tightening monetary policy in May last year.

Economists are concerned the Reserve Bank runs the risk of a recession with future interest rate rises amid signs households are reducing expenditure even before the full effect of previous rate increases is felt.Credit:The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

The higher interest rates will add to growing housing affordability issues which, despite the recent fall in property prices, have worsened over the past year.

Economists are concerned the Reserve Bank runs the risk of a recession with future interest rate rises amid signs households are reducing expenditure even before the full effect of previous rate increases is felt.

More on this issue here.

Hopes fade for quake survivors

Search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkey and Syria on Tuesday as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug – often with their bare hands – through the remains of buildings flattened by two powerful earthquakes on Monday.

The death toll had soared to more than 6200 by the time night fell and is expected to continue to rise.

Emergency teams worked through night and day in search of survivors in Adana, TurkeyCredit:AP

With the damage spread over a vast area, the massive relief operation struggled to reach devastated towns and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent. The rescue operation in many areas is turning from rescue to recovery.

“We could hear their voices – they were calling for help,” said Ali Silo, whose two relatives could not be saved in the Turkish town of Nurdagi.

In the end, it was left to Silo, a Syrian who arrived from Hama a decade ago, and other residents to recover the bodies and those of two other victims.

Read the full story here.

AP, Reuters

This morning’s headlines at a glance

Good morning and thanks for your company.

It’s Wednesday, February 8. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s what you need to now before we get started.

  • Two major banks – NAB and ANZ – have increased their variable home loan rates following the Reserve Bank’s decision yesterday to lift interest rates for the ninth time in a row. Commonwealth and Westpac are yet to make their announcements.
  • Speaking of interest rates, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers will be doing the media rounds this morning. He’ll be on Radio National just after 7.30am AEDT. Stay tuned. It comes after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton yesterday sharpened the Coalition’s cost-of-living attack lines at a joint partyroom meeting.
  • Moderate Liberals will today lobby Dutton to back an Indigenous Voice to parliament. Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer and NSW senator Andrew Bragg will describe constitutional reform as a liberal solution to reconciliation.
  • All adult Australians who have not had a COVID-19 infection or vaccination in the last six months can get an extra booster shot later this month.
  • Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann has filed defamation proceedings against Network Ten and a branch of News Corp following the dismissal of his rape trial in the ACT.
  • In international news, Turkey’s president has declared a state of emergency after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake earlier this week.
  • And US President Joe Biden will hold his State of the Union address early this afternoon, AEDT. It will be the first time Biden has addressed America’s House of Representatives since Republicans won a majority.

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