Prime Minister Kevin Rudd believes the decision by the central bank to leave the cash rate steady is good news for Australian home buyers and businesses.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left the cash rate unchanged at Tuesday's monthly board meeting, after cutting it to an all-time low of 2.5 per cent in August.
Mr Rudd said if Australians were paying the same interest rates that they were paying when Opposition Leader Tony Abbott left office, they would have to pay $6000 a year more off their home loans than they are now.
"That I think is an important consideration when you look at overall cost of living pressures," Mr Rudd told reporters in Launceston.
Mr Rudd said despite low interest rates, the Australian economy was one of the strongest in the world, with relatively low unemployment, low debt and deficit levels and a triple-A rating from all three major credit agencies.
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He said one of the key hallmarks of the election campaign on the economy has been a lack of clarity from the coalition on the attacks it makes on the government's economic record.
"If you listened to them and walked off the planet Mars you would think that the economy was about to fall apart by tomorrow lunch time," he said.
