BENGALURU, April 29 Reuters The Reserve Bank of Australia will raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade on Tuesday and join a long list of central banks now expected to tighten policy at a much faster pace than previously thought, a Reuters poll found.

A surge in inflation to the fastest annual pace in two decades last quarter led economists to rethink the policies of the RBA. They now forecast an interest rate rise just before a federal election for the first time since 2007. 

The median forecast in the April 2729 Reuters poll of 32 economists showed the RBA would raise its official cash rate by 15 basis points to 0.25 from a record low 0.10 at its May 3 meeting.

Half of 32 economists forecast a rise in the cash rate to 0.25 at the meeting and four predicted a hefty 40 basis points increase to 0.50. The remaining 12 respondents expected no change.

That was an abrupt change in expectations from a survey taken early this month, when most economists predicted the interest rate rise to come next quarter.

Now that the ratehike genie looks as if it is out of the bottle, there are good reasons for the RBA to front load the tightening that is inevitably coming, said Robert Carnell, regional head of research for the AsiaPacific at ING.

All the hurdles the RBA has previously placed in front of any rate hikes are arguably already met. The RBA has been gradually making room for itself to tighten in the coming months. But much higherthanexpected inflation…