Wayne Cole
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A new monthly gauge of Australian consumer prices on Thursday showed annual inflation in August as petrol prices fell sharply Rates are down slightly from July, providing hope that cost-of-living pressures may be near their peak.
The data was released ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) policy committee meeting next week, where the market expects it to raise interest rates 50 by 2 basis points.225% to a nine-year high.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that its monthly indicator of consumer prices (CPI) rose 6.8% year-on-year in August. This was down from 7.0% in July and returned to the 6.8% level in June.
Graph: Australia’s monthly CPI indicator slows slightly https://graphics.reuters.com/ AUSTRALIA-ECONOMY/INFLATION/mypmndozavr/chart.png
but still higher than the standard quarterly CPI release, which showed 6.1% inflation in the June quarter, which means that the September quarter may show
the monthly data may differ from The quarterly figures for the average CPI over three months vary widely.
“The slight decline in annual inflation from July to August was mainly due to lower motor fuel prices,” said Australian statistician David Gruen. “This caused the annual change in motor fuel to drop from 43.3% in June to 18.0% in August. “
In contrast, annual inflation for fruit and vegetables more than doubled in August to 50 as floods hit the agricultural sector .6%.
Utility prices have also been rising, but are only included in the quarterly CPI release.
This is only the second release of the monthly CPI indicator, data for September will be released soon
The monthly CPI only accounts for about two-thirds of the quarterly series of price observations, Greater volatility limits its usefulness to some extent.
It has not been seasonally adjusted and does not include the RBA’s preferred measure of core inflation.
Asked recently, RBA Deputy Governor Michele Bullock said the indicator contained a lot of statistical noise and it was unlikely Influence the board’s policy decisions at its October meeting.
Soaring inflation this year has led to a substantial increase in interest rates by the central bank 225 basis points, with the market pricing in a further move towards 4.35% .
