Why investors need to keep an eye out on international markets

According to Mr Reardon, this is because Australian banks are only as strong as the conditions that allow them to give out loans, which is influenced by the global market as well as conditions at home.

“The costs of finance to Australian banks is as a consequence of cost of borrowing globally, and what’s likely to play out in the next couple of years is that there is a timing of that money supply,” Mr Reardon said at an industry briefing.

“Post GFC, there was a flush of both loose behind monetary policy and loose fiscal policy which gave us a money supply volume that was largely unprecedented post Second World War, so that would give us the only point in time where we would have a reference to look at, to see what happens when you start to restrict that supply of money.

“As those US, UK [and the] rest of the world pick up and they start to tighten their fiscal policies and they start to tighten their monetary policies, that supply of money tightens, the cost of borrowing for Australian banks increases, so regardless of what happens with the Reserve Bank, the cost of borrowing domestically is likely to rise.”

For example, when the Nasdaq Stock Exchange experienced a fall in February, Mr Reardon said that this was felt globally with a curbing of the supply of money.

Other influencers, the principal economist said, include how major international trading partners are keeping Australia up and not down; the growth of India overtaking China; and how the pressure for interest rates to go up rather than down is being felt globally, not just in Australia.