A more aggressive stance on inflation and evidence that turmoil in the offshore banking sector had been contained probably drove the RBA’s shock decision to raise interest rates, say economists who were blindsided by the move.

The RBA took markets by surprise on Tuesday by raising interest rates a quarter percentage point to 3.85 per cent. Twenty-one of 30 economists in a Bloomberg survey expected the cash rate to stay unchanged for a second month, while markets had priced almost no chance of the outcome.