Jul 5, 2026 – 4.27pmAustralia has become an international inflation outlier, with economists arguing the Reserve Bank has not done enough to bring price pressures under control or offset the inflationary effect of elevated state and federal government spending.It now has the equal-highest core inflation rate among major developed economies and the second-highest across all advanced economies, behind only Iceland, after trimmed mean inflation – the RBA’s preferred measure of underlying price pressures – rose to 3.6 per cent in May, according to data platform Trading Economics.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles