The first tightening of US monetary policy in almost a decade could trigger increased demand for Australian assets such as commercial property, according to the Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens. 
Speaking in his regular year-end interview with The Australian Financial Review, Mr Stevens said the US rate rise probably will cause some disruption on global financial markets but will not trigger a crisis.
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce an increase in the federal funds rate of a quarter of a percentage point on Thursday morning, Australian time. It will be the first step in a slow return of the rate to more normal levels. The emerging market economies, which have boomed on the availability of cheap US finance, have suffered heavy outflows of foreign capital in expectation of the United States rate rise. "It's always the case that when the Fed moves, there's the potential for some disruption," Mr Stevens said in the interview on Monday. "There's a reasonable likelihood actually that there will be a bit of an upset somewhere. There always is but that's a far cry from saying it's going to bring down the global system or something. I don't think that's going to happen."
Mr Stevens said US dollar funding rates mattered for financial strategies and structures around the world, and there was still some residual uncertainty about the future trajectory of the federal funds rate.
The Fed has assured markets that the subsequent rise of the rate will be gradual, and financial market economists are predicting between two and four further rate rises in 2016.
Mr Stevens said some of the money flowing out of the emerging market economies could find its way to Australia, although more in search of higher rates of return than of a safe haven.
"In a world where there's a material reduction in risk appetite for some reason, I'm not sure that we're going to be regarded as that big a safe haven," he said. "Separately to that, though, the world where there's an appetite for yield - well, I think Australia's still attractive here.
"We don't have very good data, but my guess is [there is] considerable appetite for Australian assets.
"We all talk about foreign demand for housing, but actually there's pretty strong demand for commercial buildings, and other assets, because the sorts of yields that are on offer here, even though they're low by our standards, to the foreigner they're still attractive, because they've lived in a world where there's been no yield for quite some years now."