Why today's borrowers are worse off than those facing 17% rates in the early 90s | The Business

By ABC News (Australia)

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New economic analysis has found that, over the past two years, Australian households have faced tougher conditions than they did when the RBA's cash rate reached 17.5 per cent in 1989. KPMG senior economist Terry Rawnsley says Gen X households faced the toughest interest rate burden during the global financial crisis. But his analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data on home loans, personal loans and credit card interest payments over the past 40 years reveals that households overall have recently faced one of the heaviest interest rate burdens on record. "What we know is that the 25 to 34 and 34 to 44 age groups -- they're the ones with the biggest mortgages. They're the ones that have purchsed most recently. But also they've purchased when home loans have been much larger, so they're really feeling the bite." According to Mr Rawnsley, total interest payments on debt hit a historical low of 2.6 per cent of household income in the March quarter of 2022. But they hit a recent pea

Tags: Australia, abc, abc news, news, business news, finance news, economic news, economy, finance, the business, abc news australia, interest rates, debt, RBA, Reserve Bank, inflation, depression, recession, KPMG, Terry Rawnsley