Australian central bank raises rates for first time since 2010

Taxis queuing up for passengers in the central business district of Sydney today. The Reserve Bank’s interest rate hike, designed to curb soaring consumer prices, is expected to be the first of several. – AFPpix: Australia's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than a decade to Tuesday, a pre-election increase designed to tame soaring consumer prices.

The move plunged the bank into the centre of a fierce political debate about the health of Australia's economy, just weeks before a May 21 election. Like consumers around the world, Australians have been hit by soaring prices for food and fuel. Australia's annual inflation rate is currently at 5.1%. But house prices have been rising for years even as wages have stagnated. Sydney and Melbourne are among the most expensive cities in the world to live.

“If only you could pay your mortgage with Scott Morrison’s excuses,” said opposition economic spokesman Jim Chalmers. Australia's vast resource wealth has for decades provided insulation from global financial headwinds and underpinned high standards of living.But there are growing concerns that the “lucky country’s” run of good fortune may be coming to an end.

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