The Australian’s Washington Correspondent Adam Creighton says Australia has a “huge structural difference” when compared to the US and the UK with a much larger percentage of the population having variable rates on their mortgages.

“Things happen very quickly, as we saw in the global financial crisis or COVID – there’s some event that will happen and that’s what will suddenly derail the economy,” he told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood.

“Australia’s the more concerning one with that interest rate increases because you just got that huge proportion of mortgage holders with variable rates and that’s not something that’s the case in the US or England.

“But a very small fraction of home loans are variable rate, whereas in Australia I think it’s 60 to 70 per cent, so that’s a huge structural difference.”