Thrifty shoppers: Pedestrians walk past retail advertising signs outside a shopping mall in Sydney. Consumer spending has been affected with the latest surge of the pandemic in Australia. — Reuters
SYDNEY: Australia’s core inflation flew to its fastest annual pace since 2014 in the December quarter as fuel and housing costs led broad-based price pressures, a shock that will stoke market speculation of an early hike in interest rates.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) out yesterday showed the headline consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.3% in the fourth quarter and 3.5% for the year, topping forecasts.
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