Sharp rise in the inflation rate in Australia, which shot up in the fourth quarter of 2022 at the strongest pace since March 1990. This is what emerges from the CPI consumer price index released by the National Statistics Office, which jumped in the last three months of the for fiscal year 2022 by 7.8% on an annualized basis, to a new 32-year high.
The sharp rise in inflation was affected by the surges in the prices of food, fuel and the construction of new homes.
Economists interviewed by Reuters had forecast lower growth, equal to +7.5%, while the Australian central bank RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) had aimed for an even more marked rise, equal to +8%.
The prices of goods rose by 9.5% in the last quarter of 2022, against +9.6% in the third quarter of the year, while the costs of services increased by 5.5%, a record pace since 2008.
The central bank of Australia should now, according to economists, raise interest rates by another 25 basis points at its next meeting on February 7, bringing them to 3.35%.
The key inflation figure watched by the Reserve Bank of Australia, i.e. annual inflation excluding large price changes (known as trimmed mean annual inflation), rose in this regard by 6.9%, to the highest rate high since the Sydney government began publishing the data, i.e. since 2003.
Economists still expect Australian inflation to peak in December, expecting the CPI to rise 7.5% year-on-year.