Unions have urged the remaining of Australia's major banks not to raise interest rates.
National Australia Bank (NAB) and ANZ Banking Group were the first to raise their variable home loan rates last week ignoring the rate set by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
The ACTU wants the remaining banks to put working families ahead of annual profits.
"ANZ and NAB's decisions to raise interest rates were simply greedy," ACTU president Sharan Burrow said in a statement.
"The top five Australian banks combined made nearly $18 billion in profit last financial year, and NAB alone made $4.4 billion in profit."
Ms Burrows said an increase in bank rates will further stress family budgets.
"Working families are struggling with increased petrol and food costs and many are already experiencing housing stress," she said.
"There were a record number of mortgage defaults last year and any further increases to interest rates will only make it harder for people to meet payments."
No comments:
Post a Comment