The RBA

Reserve Bank of Australia

Status Ongoing

The central bank that did 'all the work' on inflation through rate rises borne by borrowers: cover under which corporate margins widened.

Last on record: 2026-10-10
Named in: 23 articles
Across: 2 cases

Named in 23 articles across 2 cases 31 connections: companies 14, lobbies 3, mechanisms 5, regulators and bodies 2, agencies and departments 3, parties and organisations 1, people 3

Key figure on file

0.25

NAB’s variable home loan rise from 9 October 2026, the same as the Reserve Bank’s rise in the cash rate. Neither NAB’s release nor its customer notic… NAB release and customer notice, 30 September 2026

Articles naming it

Cases it recurs across

Linked in the graph

Figures on file

Fig. 01 / Where this name appears

The Inflation Rort0.25NAB’s variable home loan rise from 9 October 2026, the same as the Reserve Bank’s rise in the cash rate. Neither NAB’s release nor its customer not…21 articles →The Surcharge Rort$1.6 billionCard surcharges the RBA estimates consumers paid in 2024/25 on the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks, out of about $1.8 billion in all; business…2 articles →

Fig. 01Source: article scan · every article naming itAs of 2026‑10‑10Auto-assembled

Fig. 02 / On the record

0.25NAB’s variable home loan rise from 9 October 2026, the same as the Reserve Bank’s rise in the cash rate. Neither NAB’s release nor its customer notice states a larger rise for any home loan.Source: NAB release and customer notice, 30 September 2026Above the 0.25 →
0.8 pointsFuel's contribution to March 2026's 4.6 per cent headline inflation, on the Reserve Bank's own split. Inflation was already 3.7 per cent in February, before the war began on 28 February. The Governor said in May the rises 'will have no impact' on the oil-driven inflation; their aim is the domestic pressure after it.Source: RBA SMP May 2026; ABS CPI, 29 April 2026; IEA Oil Market Report, March 2026; RBA media conference, 5 May 2026A global war, a national rate →
‘Better suited’The government’s own 2026-27 Budget: fiscal policy is better suited than monetary policy to respond to supply shocks, such as the global oil shock. The RBA’s 29 September reasons put the war and energy prices first. The IMF adds that fiscal responses should avoid broad-based subsidies, tax cuts and price controls.Source: Budget Paper No. 1, Statement 3, 12 May 2026; RBA Media Release 2026-27; IMF WEO Update, July 2026Is it the only way? →
$36.9bnInterest the Reserve Bank paid on Exchange Settlement balances, the reserves banks hold with it, over 2022/23 to 2024/25: THE RORT’s sum of its audited figures. In 2021/22 its interest on all liabilities was $411 million. Paid to all ES account holders; the RBA does not publish it by institution.Source: RBA Annual Reports 2023, 2024 and 2025, Note 4What the Reserve Bank pays the banks →
7.8%December quarter 2022 inflation peak. Primary causes: Ukraine war energy prices, COVID supply chains, reopening demand surge. The RBA raised rates 13 times in response. Rate rises are a demand-side tool.Source: ABS (7.8 per cent) / RBA cash rate historyThe two inflations →
⅛ to ½ pointPeak fall in year-ended inflation from a 100 basis point rise, across the RBA’s models, one to two years later in most of them; GDP ¼ to 1 per cent lower. The RBA has published no estimate of what the 2026 rises will do.Source: RBA Bulletin, April 2025; RBA SMP May and August 2026What a rate rise buys →
32.5% of mortgage holders‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress in July 2026 (1,786,000 people, not households), the highest in 18 years. Monthly repayments up about A$1,210 on a A$500K loan after the 13 rises, on RateCity’s calculation. The RBA’s March 2026 measures found arrears near pre-pandemic levels and severe stress small.Source: Roy Morgan (survey model) / RateCityWho rate rises hurt →
$1.6 billionCard surcharges the RBA estimates consumers paid in 2024/25 on the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks, out of about $1.8 billion in all; businesses paid the other $0.2 billion. It is a bill that was paid, not a measured saving.A line off the receipt →

Fig. 02Source: figures on file for this name, each tied to the article it came fromAs of 2026‑10‑10Auto-assembled

How we know

The sources of the 23 articles that name the RBA, by the tier the desk declared. A source supports its article, not necessarily a claim about the RBA.

Evidence strength · 478 sources across 23 articles

Primary 272
Official 84
Masthead 32
Trade 56
Aggregator 16
Unusable 4
14 not yet graded

Primary: the document itself: legislation, a court record, a filing, a regulator’s own publication
Official: the organisation’s own statement about itself
Masthead: a news organisation with a corrections policy, reporting the primary document
Trade: specialist or trade press
Aggregator: republishes others’ work
Unusable: its own sourcing cannot be established

How sources are graded

21 of 23 articles are graded on every headline finding. How findings are graded

Fig. 03 / Named together

The 12 names most often in the same articles as The RBA. A line's weight, and the number by each name, is how many articles name both. Grey chords join the neighbours most often named together themselves (two articles or more). Circles are people and organisations, squares are mechanisms. Named together is all this shows: it is not a finding about what the relationship is.

Fig. 03Source: article scan · articles naming bothAs of 2026‑10‑10Auto-assembled