Low interest rates only temporary: Hockey Few people will be surprised if the central bank leaves the cash rate unchanged next week, least of all shadow treasurer Joe Hockey. At a time when the federal government's debt position is under scrutiny in the run-up to the May budget, Mr Hockey was quizzed about his own home mortgage on Friday. "I, like others, have taken advantage of the lower interest rates to try to pay down the principal," he told ABC radio in Brisbane. Even so Mr Hockey, who will become treasurer if the coalition is successful at the September election, is extremely concerned about the global economic outlook, saying Australia needs to get its budget in order, to prepare for any flow-on volatility. "I'm very bearish on Europe, and I'm long term bearish on the United States," he said. A survey by mortgage provider Loan Market found 57 per cent of home owners expect no change in the official cash rate, which has been at three per cent since December, at Tuesday's monthly Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board meeting. The online poll of 382 respondents found 40 per cent expected a 25 basis point reduction. TD Securities head of Asia-Pacific research Annette Beacher believes any talk the RBA has finished cutting interest rates, or that it has scope to remove some of last year's reductions, is premature. "Inflationary pressures are clearly benign, and recent events in Europe are a reminder that offshore risks remain," Ms Beacher said, referring to problems in Cyprus. She was releasing the latest TD Securities-Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge that showed a 0.2 per cent rise in March, for an annual rate of 2.1 per cent, at the lower end of the RBA's two to three per cent inflation target band. Its underlying inflation gauge rose just 0.1 per cent in the month, to be just 1.8 per cent higher over the year. So Ms Beacher expects the central bank meeting to be a "benign event." Other data on Thursday also indicated there is scope for the RBA to cut the cash rate again, should it be necessary, with credit demand remaining subdued and hiring intentions falling sharply. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' job vacancies data for the three months to February tumbled 10.1 per cent. Economists at ANZ Bank said this weakness, along with that in its own monthly job advertisement series, suggested that employment growth was likely to be soft in the near term. "They also cast significant doubt on the robustness of the measured 70K jump in employment in February," the economists said in a note to clients. The RBA's own credit data showed demand growing by 0.2 per cent in February, for an annual rate of 3.4 per cent, the slowest since March last year. Notably, business credit fell by 0.2 per cent in the month. "Business is mindful that 2013 is a federal election year, which will add to uncertainty," Westpac senior economist Andrew Hanlan said.