Golden Finance reported that some observers believe the RBA's monetary policy tools are more powerful than those of many other central banks because the country's mortgages mostly have variable interest rates and household debt is high. Paul Bloxham, chief economist at HSBC, said this means that in the post-COVID-19 era, the Reserve Bank of Australia does not have to tighten monetary policy as much as before to achieve the same effect. However, a recent speech by RBA Assistant Chairman Kent dispelled this myth. Kent said there was nothing special about the effectiveness of the RBA's policy relative to other central banks. This is consistent with HSBC's view that rate cuts may take longer as the RBA tightens less aggressively than other central banks. Bloxham warned that it was also possible that the Reserve Bank of Australia would not cut interest rates at all.