Australia Core Inflation Accelerates

Australia’s core consumer price growth accelerated last quarter and the cost of imported goods increased as the inflation-restraining influence of an elevated currency waned.

The trimmed mean gauge of core prices rose 0.5 percent from the previous quarter, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney today, matching the median forecast of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The weighted-median gauge of inflation, a second core measure that excludes the largest price increases and declines, advanced 0.7 percent, compared with economists’ estimates for a 0.5 percent gain.

The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced borrowing costs seven times — for a total of 2 percentage points — since November 2011 as the local dollar’s strength dragged on growth and a mining investment boom crests. The currency declined 12 percent last quarter, sending imported goods prices higher, and the central bank said last week the inflation outlook is now “slightly higher” as a result.

Bloomberg

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