Inflation is (temporarily) levelling off, at about the Reserve Bank's target.
Big increases over the year: fruit and vegetables (7.6%: who would have thought that alternating drought and floods would increase food prices?), tobacco (12.2%, taxes), rents (5.2% -- still a rental crisis), education (5.7%). Big decreases: electricity (-9.6%, thanks to direct government subsidy) and petrol (-7.6%, falling world oil price).
My forecast is that inflation will continue to decline slowly. Oz won't be retaliating to Trump's tariffs, but China's loss of the US market may well encourage its exporters to aggressively discount exports to other countries, helping push down our inflation. This price weakness will be increased by a rising A$. Also, the world oil price is likely to keep on falling. And although the Australian economy is picking up (see next post) it's not exactly overheating,
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