Australian inflation falls to 3-year low

CANBERRA, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — Australia’s annual inflation rate has fallen to its lowest level in three years.
Official data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday revealed that the consumer price index (CPI), the headline measure of inflation in Australia, rose by 2.7 percent in the 12 months to August.
It marks a fall from 3.5 percent in the 12 months to July and the lowest annual CPI rise since August 2021.
“It’s a very heartening result that shows our policies are helping, but we’re not complacent because we know people are still under pressure,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in a statement posted on social media responding to the data.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the August figures were in line with economists’ expectations.
The ABS identified a 2.6 percent rise in housing costs between August 2023 and 2024, 3.4 percent increases in the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages, and 6.6 percent in alcohol and tobacco in the same period as the biggest drivers of inflation.
However, those rises were offset by a 1.1 percent fall in transport costs.
Electricity prices fell by a record 17.9 percent in the 12-month period due to government rebates, and automotive fuel prices fell by 7.6 percent.
The figures were released one day after the central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, kept the official interest rate on hold at 4.35 percent, where it has been since November 2023.
The RBA board said in its monetary policy statement that returning inflation to the bank’s target range of 2-3 percent was its highest priority.
Annual trimmed mean inflation, the underlying inflation measure that excludes volatile price changes and is focused more heavily by the RBA, was 3.4 percent in the 12 months to August, down from 3.8 percent in July and 4.4 percent in May. ■