Australia’s annual inflation lifted to 3.8 per cent in the year to June, from 3.6 per cent previously, to land broadly in line with expectations ahead of the next interest rate meeting.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said it was the first annual increase in the consumer price index since December 2022.

On a quarterly basis, inflation rose one per cent in the three months ended June, the same as in the March quarter, and was in line with economists’ expectations.

The all-important data release sets the scene for the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate meeting next week, amid concerns it could be enough to trigger another interest rate hike.

Yet the annual trimmed mean, the central bank’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, undershot expectations to come in at 3.9 per cent, down from four per cent in March.

“This is the sixth quarter in a row of lower annual trimmed mean inflation, down from the peak of 6.8 per cent in the December 2022 quarter,” ABS head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt said.

Poppy Johnston
(Australian Associated Press)