Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service says the rate of delinquencies in excess of 30 days for Australian prime residential mortgages was 1.35 per cent in August. This was less than the 1.39 per cent in July, but up from the 1.24 per cent recorded in August last year."Looking ahead, we expect the performance trends witnessed to date in 2013 to continue with… delinquencies [being stable], underpinned by expected GDP growth of two per cent to three per cent, the current low interest rate environment and a steady unemployment rate of five per cent to six per cent," said Jennifer Wu, a Moody's vice president and senior credit officer.These comments reflect the views outlined by the Reserve Bank of Australia's governor, Glenn Stevens, in outlining the Government's monetary policy. "Recent information is consistent with global growth running a bit below average this year, with reasonable prospects of a pick-up next year," Stevens said. "There has been an improvement in indicators of household and business sentiment recently, but it is still too soon to judge how persistent this will be."Moody's also observed that the Australian prime mortgage 60-day-plus arrears rate for  August of 0.76 per cent compares favourably with all economies covered in its report, with the exception of Japan, where borrowers returned a delinquency rate of 0.29 per cent.