POPULAR WORDS

Business owners have been spared another interest rate hike, with the Reserve Bank today announcing rates will remain on hold for the seventh month in a row. The decision leaves the official cash rate at 5.25% for at least another month. The central bank last raised rates in December in response to concerns about an overheating housing market and runaway personal credit growth, but both these leading indicators have since slowed to more sustauinable levels of growth. For business, the decision takes some pressure off cashflows at a time of a general slowdown in economic growth and emerging signs of rising costs, especially materials and labour. The ACCI quarterly Survey of Investor Confidence, released yesterday, found that for the first time in 10 years, concerns about interest rates have entered the top 10 constraints on investment, perhaps following recent Reserve Bank policy tightening speculation.