RBA interest rates: Reserve Bank raises official cash rate to 3.1%, the eighth increase in as many months

More pain for borrowers with interest rates to rise again after central bank lifts cash rate 25 basis points to the highest level since the end of 2012

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Hopes for a Santa pause" on interest rates have been dashed with the Reserve Bank lifting borrowing costs for a record eighth time in as many months at its last meeting for the year.

The RBA on Tuesday raised its cash rate 25 basis points. Most economists had expected the quarter point increase to 3.1%, the highest level since the end of 2012.