Australian CPI undershoots

Advertisement

By Leith van Onselen

The Australian Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the September quarter is out and came in at 0.5% for the quarter, below market expectations of 0.7%:

ScreenHunter_9973 Oct. 28 11.31

In the year to September, CPI was just 1.5%, the same as last quarter’s reading but below the 1.7% expected.

Most importantly for interest rates, underlying inflation is running at the lower end of the RBA’s inflation target, coming it at 0.3% (trimmed mean) and 0.3% (weighted median) for the quarter and by 2.1% (trimmed mean) and 2.2% (weighted mean) over the year.

Advertisement

Hence, there are no inflationary pressures here.

I will be back shortly with a detailed report.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.