Australian interest rates are at a historical low. This is part of a world wide phenomenon. Australian banks borrow a large percentage of the funds they lend out from overseas sources.
This makes our economy and interest rates very susceptible to the impact of events overseas. The immediate impact of a shock to the world economy could be a sudden spike in rates.
Ignore the government spin - the economy has slowed dramatically and things are not going to look up in the short term.
Comparing lending products purely on the basis of interest rate can be very misleading. With the raft of recent changes to lending guidelines there is now considerable variation in assessment standards, and the differential amount that can be borrowed can be quite significant.
