Banks and other financial institutions on Tuesday began repricing mortgage and deposit products within hours of the Reserve Bank’s official 0.25 per cent rate hike. ANZ was the first lender to hike variable mortgage rates in line with the RBA’s move.All ANZ variable rate home loan products will reprice on 17 February. The bank will also lift the standard rate on its ANZ Plus savings account by 0.25 per cent to 4 per cent from 14 February. NAB’s UBank subsidiary was the first to move in the deposits market after announcing it would be boosting rates on its “Save” and “USave” accounts from 1 March.  While each of these accounts currently earn interest of up to 4.1 per cent, from the start of March they will each pay accountholders 4.35 per cent if certain monthly conditions are met. Leading economists have pencilled at least another two rate increases in coming months after RBA Governor Philip Lowe struck a hawkish tone in a statement that accompanied the monetary policy decision. “The board expects that further increases in interest rates will be needed over the months ahead to ensure that inflation returns to target and that this period of high inflation is only temporary,” he said in the statement. “In assessing how much further interest rates need to increase, the board will be paying close attention to developments in the global economy, trends in household spending and the outlook for inflation and the labour market.  “The board remains resolute in its determination to return inflation to target and will do what is necessary to achieve that.” Deutsche Bank’s chief economist Phil O’Donaghoe is forecasting another three hikes before September that would take the official cash rate to 4.1 per cent. Moody’s Analytics’ associate economist Illiana Jain warned that more rate hikes were likely if inflation proved stubborn. “The RBA is prepared to ‘do what is necessary’ to return inflation to target, which means that if prices prove sticker than expected, exceeding its forecasts ahead, rate hikes could feature for longer,” she said. Banking experts believe the banks’ pricing responses to recent RBA moves in the deposits market remain contentious because many institutions decided to prune term rate offers in December and January. Moreover, most bonus saver accounts have not been repriced in line with the cumulative official rate rise of 3.25 per cent since May last year. “Savers are not getting a fair go,” said Canstar director Steve Mickenbecker. “They’ve missed out on the full benefit of the new rate cycle which has left many with no choice but to shift their money to another bank.” Mickenbecker said that depositors were being used by banks to subsidise cheaper home loans for new property buyers. Canstar research shows that banks have not passed on the full impact of the official rate rises since last May to new borrowers. According to Canstar the average standard variable home loan rate in the market stood at about 5.67 per cent before the latest RBA increase. This meant that banks have withheld passing on to new home borrowers around 31 basis points of the official rate