Sunrise host David Koch unleashes on Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe

Sunrise host David Koch has unleashed on the Reserve Bank of Australia after its governor Philip Lowe repeatedly promised last year to leave rates on hold until 2024.

‘Late last year, November December, the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe, was telling Aussies to go out and borrow, go out and borrow as much as you like, on the understanding. I’m not going to put up official interest rates till 2024,’ Koch said.

‘A couple of months later, they started putting up rates. Was that advice to average Australians negligent, were they derelict in their duty to lead average Australians up the garden path to get themselves in debt?’

Banking giant ANZ is now predicting the RBA will raise rates by 0.5 of a percentage point in August, September, October and November as the cash rate more than doubled from a three-year high of 1.35 per cent to a 10-year high of 3.35 per cent.

Australian borrowers in May, June and July have copped 1.25 percentage points of rate rises – the steepest increases since 1994.

Should ANZ’s prediction come true, a borrower with an average $600,000 mortgage, by November, would have seen their monthly mortgage repayments surge by $1,060 or 46 per cent compared with early May when the cash rate was still at a record low of 0.1 per cent.

A popular Commonwealth Bank variable in May was just 2.29 per cent before the RBA raised rates for the first time since November 2010.

But if the cash rate rose to 3.35 per cent, as ANZ is predicting, a CBA variable rate would rise to 5.39 per cent, up from 3.39 per cent now. 

The Commonwealth Bank in late June trimmed its variable rates by 0.15 percentage points ahead of the RBA’s July meeting which raised the cash rate by 0.5 percentage points.

Reserve Bank of Australia after its governor Philip Lowe (pictured) has since May imposed the steepest interest rates rises on borrowers since 1994 despite his promise last year to leave the cash rate untouched