Cash rates in Australia are 1.5 percentage points lower than they might otherwise be because of the elevated cost of funds faced by banks, Phillip Lowe, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, told a conference yesterday.While Lowe's point is not new, the RBA has not made it so plainly before.Speaking at the conference of the Australian Conference of Economists, held in Melbourne, Lowe walked listeners through some pricing trends in interest rates on assets and liabilities since the credit crisis took hold in 2007."What we are seeing as a result of both market and regulatory developments is an increase in most interest rates in the economy relative to the cash rate," Lowe said."This is something that the Reserve Bank has spoken about at length and it has been an important factor in the setting of monetary policy over recent years. "In particular, this increase in interest rates relative to the cash rate has been offset by the bank setting a lower cash rate than would otherwise have been the case. "While it is difficult to be too precise, the cash rate today is in the order of 1.5 percentage points lower than it would have been in the absence of these developments."