Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has apologised to Australians for giving them unclear guidance that led to hundreds of thousands taking out big mortgages in the expectation that interest rates would stay low until 2024. Towards the end of 2020 and for nearly all of last year, Dr Lowe said interest rates would not likely rise until 2024. At that time, almost 300,000 Australians took out loans six or more times their incomes, some with deposits as low as 10 per cent, based on that guidance. But in November, the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked interest rates for a seventh consecutive month, warning that it now expects ... (full story)