The Reserve Bank governor has strongly indicated that rates will stay at their current record low, but has warned that investors should avoid cheap loans and running up household debt.

The cash rate target has lingered at a record low of 2.5 per cent since the 25-basis-point cut in late last year.

This is its longest period of stability since the last peak in rates in late 2010 and much of 2011.

RBA governor Glenn Stevens says the current state of play will remain for some time, but that investors should hold back.

“As well as the low level of rates generally, a sense of stability, if we're able to offer that, is something that, at the margins, should be of some help to businesses and households as they make their own plans," he told the Commonwealth Parliament's House Economics Committee.

“That's a bit of a shift on our part, where we had been saying that there might be scope to go down a bit more if needed; I don't think we do need to, at this point in time.”

The comments come in spite of earlier claims that low interest rates are working to boost economic growth.

“Credit to households for investment in housing, [rising by] 8 or 9 per cent a year, I'd say that's probably fast enough actually,” he said.

“In Sydney in particular, but not just Sydney now, there's been a very big run up in investor activity and that's OK, but people need to keep in mind prices don't just rise, they can fall, they have fallen, and we need to be careful that we don't take on too much leverage.”

Big retail sales figures out this week are not enough to bank on, Stevens says.

“While we expect consumption to grow in line with income, or maybe just a little faster, consumers are unlikely to be the drivers of growth as they were in the years before the financial crisis,” he said.

The RBA admits inflation will be slightly higher than previously expected at the end of last year, but it still expects it to stick to the medium term target of 2-3 per cent.