Mortgage holders may breathe a sigh of relief next Tuesday as finance boffins predict the Reserve Bank will leave interest rates on hold following a significant fall in inflation reported by the Bureau of Stats yesterday. Prices rose by just 0.6% in the October-December quarter – the smallest rise in nearly 2 years. That’s helped to almost halve inflation from a peak of 7.8% a year ago to 4.1%. Before you break open the bubbly, analysts say the Reserve Bank will likely leave the current 4.35% interest rate where it is, with a cut later this year – maybe in August. And it’s expected that rents, house prices, insurance and electricity costs will all remain high. That’s a problem Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock referred to as “homegrown” – that is, local economic/market issues rather than external factors like blocked global supply chains.