The Reserve Bank boss has downplayed mortgage rate hikes by the big four banks, but says any move in the cash rate in the near future would be down.

RBA governor Glenn Stevens said benign inflation and Australia’s’s cooling property market were no impediment to cutting interest rates.

“Were a change to monetary policy to be required in the near term, it would almost certainly be an easing, not a tightening,” he told the Melbourne Institute 2015 Economic and Social Outlook Conference on Thursday.

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The RBA is widely believed to target end-user interest rates when it sets its target cash rate.

This has led to speculation that it would cut rates to compensate for recent out-of-cycle rate rises of between 0.12 and 0.2 per cent across most banks’ variable home loan rates.

The RBA cash rate, which was left on hold at its monetary policy committee meeting on 3 November, is at a record low of 2 per cent.

The banks’ standard variable mortgage rates are currently priced in the range of 5.08 per cent to 5.74 per cent according to figures compiled by Finder.com.au.

The RBA’s low cash rate has so far failed to stimulate growth and investment in the economy, as hoped – another reason for ongoing speculation of a rate cut.