Inflation has surged in the September quarter with consumer prices rising at an annual pace of 3.2 per cent, up from 2.1 per cent in the June quarter.
That level of inflation came in much hotter than economists were expecting, squashing hopes of a rate cut next week.
“With inflation vastly overshooting the RBA’s forecasts the bank won’t cut interest rates at its November meeting, and the chances that it won’t loosen policy any further are rising,” said Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia Pacific at Capital Economics.
Headline inflation rose by 1.3 per cent in the quarter, which was the highest quarterly rise since March 2023.
Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics, said the largest contributor to the quarterly movement in prices was electricity costs, which rose by 9 per cent.
Annual electricity price reviews came into effect from July 2025 and increased electricity across all capital cities.
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The “trimmed mean” measure of inflation, which is the Reserve Bank’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, also rose in September, from 2.7 per cent to 3 per cent.
The RBA had forecast that headline inflation would rise quite sharply at this point in the cycle, with various government electricity rebates wearing off.
But it was not forecasting underlying inflation to rise from 2.7 to 3 per cent. It was forecasting underlying inflation to be 2.6 per cent by the end of December.
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