All four of Australia's major banks have passed on the full 0.25 percentage point rate rise to mortgage holders, after the nation's central bank hiked the cash rate for the first time in more than a decade.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifted the official cash rate to 0.35 per cent from a record low 0.1 per cent following Tuesday's monthly board meeting.
It was a larger increase than expected by economists after last week's spike in inflation to the highest level in some two decades.
Commonwealth Bank was the first of the big four banks to raise its standard variable home loan rates, announcing on Tuesday it would pass on the full 0.25 percentage point increase.
ANZ and Westpac quickly followed suit, followed by National Australia Bank on Wednesday morning.
RBA governor Philip Lowe has warned further interest rate rises should be expected in the coming months because, without them, inflation would grow substantially.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release retail trade figures for March on Wednesday.
Economists' forecasts point to a more modest 0.5 per cent increase in the month after two solid months of growth.
However, predictions for March range quite widely, from a one per cent fall to rise of two per cent.
Retail spending has shown solid momentum since the turn of the year despite the outbreak of the COVID-19 Omicron variant and floods along the east coast of Australia.
However, there are concerns that the spike in petrol prices to above $2 a litre at one stage during March will have strained household budgets.
The ABS will also release home lending figures for March, which economists expect will show a further two per cent decline as the housing market loses steam.
The CoreLogic national home value index for April released on Monday rose by just 0.6 per cent, the smallest rise since October 2020.
Stretched housing affordability, rising fixed-term mortgage rates and lower consumer sentiment have weighed on house prices after last year's spike.
At the same time, the ABS will also issue its living costs indexes for the March quarter, which measure the price change for goods and services and the effect they have on living expenses for various household types.
Cost of living pressures is a likely key topic when Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and his Labor counterpart Jim Chalmers face off at the National Press Club on Wednesday.
