SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s consumer prices rose at the fastest annual pace in almost 13 years last quarter as petrol jumped and government subsidies unwound, but a far tamer reading for core inflation suggested the spike would be fleeting.
Wednesday’s data showed the headline consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.8% in the June quarter, from the previous quarter, just topping market forecasts of a 0.7% increase.
Prices were up a sharp 3.8% on a year earlier, but largely because the CPI had been artificially depressed last year by emergency relief measures related to coronavirus lockdowns.
The more benign underlying trend was evident in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) trimmed mean measure of inflation which rose 0.5% in the quarter and only 1.6% for the year.
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
