Interest rate forecast: How high will interest rates go in 2022? Based on the latest RBA predictions, the cash rate in Australia is expected to climb to a peak of around 2.5%, with inflation possibly surging to 7% by the end of 2022 and not likely to fall until early in 2023. Speaking with 7.30 in June of this year, Dr Lowe said Australians “need to be prepared for higher interest rates.” “We had emergency settings during the pandemic, it was the right thing to do, but the emergency is over, and it’s time to remove the emergency settings and move to more normal settings of monetary policy.” These “emergency settings” came into effect when the RBA set the cash rate at a record-low point of 0.10% in November 2020, to help mitigate the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was not originally predicted to rise again until 2023 or 2024, but the central bank decided to act sooner in a bid to curb soaring inflation. “The other consideration is that inflation is high,...