What the cash rate target is
The cash rate is the interest rate on unsecured overnight loans between banks, and the Reserve Bank of Australia sets a target for it. The RBA does not lend to households or tell banks what to charge. It keeps the overnight market at its target, and the rates on home loans, business loans and deposits are priced from there. Under the Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy agreed with the Treasurer, the goal is consumer price inflation between 2 and 3 per cent, aiming at the midpoint, alongside full employment.
Since 1 March 2025 the decision has belonged to the Monetary Policy Board; before then the Reserve Bank Board made it. The Board meets eight times a year, publishes its decision at 2.30 pm when the meeting ends, and any change takes effect the following day. Two administered rates hold the market at the target: the RBA pays interest on the exchange settlement balances banks keep with it a little below the target, and lends to them overnight against collateral a little above it. Both are recorded beside the target in table A2.
How a change reaches your home loan
Most Australian home loans are variable, and that makes the cash rate felt faster here than in countries where long fixed terms are the norm. In its November 2025 Statement on Monetary Policy the RBA put fixed-rate loans at around 4 per cent of the outstanding mortgage stock.
- Variable-rate loans. Your lender sets its own variable rates and is not bound to follow the RBA, but lenders usually move them soon after a decision, and the RBA has reported most housing lenders passing cash rate increases on in full to their standard variable rates. Your lender writes to tell you the new rate and repayment. The variable rate tracker shows the average rate actually charged on new owner-occupier loans, which sits below the rates lenders advertise.
- Fixed-rate loans. Moneysmart notes that a fixed rate usually lasts between one and five years. A decision does nothing to it until the fixed period ends and the loan rolls on to the lender's variable rate, which is when a borrower who fixed low feels every change made in the meantime.
- Split loans fix part of the balance and leave the rest variable, so a change reaches only the variable part.
Put the new rate into the mortgage calculator to see what it does to your repayment; on a principal-and-interest loan the change is largest early in the term, when most of each repayment is interest. A fixed-rate car loan keeps its rate for the whole term, so a decision changes only the rate you are offered on the next one, which the car loan calculator can price.
How it reaches your savings
Savings account rates follow the cash rate, but your bank chooses how much of a change to pass on, and bonus rates that depend on conditions such as a monthly deposit move at the bank's discretion. A term deposit fixes its rate for the term, so one opened before a cut keeps paying the old rate until it matures. Deposits with Australian banks, building societies and credit unions are protected by the Financial Claims Scheme up to $250,000 per account holder per institution.
The savings goal calculator and the compound interest calculator take the rate your account pays, not the cash rate.
Reading the chart and the table
The chart draws the target as steps, because it holds exactly where the Board set it until the next change. The table lists every change since 2 August 1990, newest first, with the size of each move in percentage points. Each row is dated when the change took effect, the day after the decision was announced, which is how the RBA's own table records it. Meetings that left the target unchanged are not rows.
The RBA's table begins in January 1990, when the target was announced as a range. The three ranges announced that year are left out, so the series starts with the first single target. The full series downloads as a CSV with the RBA's dates and values.