A Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) survey of about 9,000 people found Australians rank high inflation above housing affordability, interest rates and wages as their top concern. The survey reported widespread misunderstanding of monetary transmission: many respondents do not link interest-rate levels to returning inflation to the RBA’s 2-3% target band and many wrongly believe higher borrowing costs push up consumer prices. It said this knowledge gap could, in some cases, blunt the effect of mone

2026-07-22

A Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) survey of about 9,000 people found Australians rank high inflation above housing affordability, interest rates and wages as their top concern. The survey reported widespread misunderstanding of monetary transmission: many respondents do not link interest-rate levels to returning inflation to the RBA’s 2-3% target band and many wrongly believe higher borrowing costs push up consumer prices. It said this knowledge gap could, in some cases, blunt the effect of monetary tightening.