Australia’s inflation accelerated in the third quarter, with consumer prices rising 3.2% from a year earlier — the fastest pace in more than a year — the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.
The increase topped the 2.1% rise in the second quarter and came in above the 3% forecast by economists polled by Reuters.
The figure also pushed inflation beyond the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 2%–3% target band for the first time since the second quarter of 2024, underscoring the challenge policymakers face in curbing persistent price pressures.
The RBA had cautioned in its September Statement on Monetary Policy that inflation for the quarter could come in “higher than expected,” citing sticky prices in housing and market services.
RBA Governor Michelle Bullock said last month that inflation in those areas was “a little higher than we were expecting,” though she stressed that it did not indicate that inflation was “running away.”
