ANZ leaves mortgage rates unchanged at August monthly independent meeting

ANZ has left its standard variable mortgage rate unchanged today at 6.8% following its monthly independent interest rate review.

The decision follows the Reserve Bank leaving the cash rate unchanged on Tuesday at 3.5% at its August monetary policy meeting.

ANZ has also left small business lending rates unchanged.

The RBA's monetary policy statement indicated the central bank was comfortable with its current cash rate setting as it upgraded GDP forecasts for 2012 to 3.5% and also noted recent improvements in the housing market.

ANZ’s head of Australian economics and property research Ivan Colhoun said RBA communications week (the August 7 cash rate statement and Friday's monetary policy statement) indicated the central bank is “quite comfortable at present with the pace of growth in the domestic economy, while noting that the global outlook is subdued”.

“We continue to expect that the RBA will eventually come to the view that the economy can grow a little more quickly, given that employment growth is likely to remain below-trend and inflation well behaved.

“We currently have 25 basis points rate cuts pencilled in for October and November but the tone of recent RBA communications suggests that the risk to this call is that the RBA doesn’t reduce the cash rate as early as we currently expect.”