Inflation slumps again
No need to agonise too much over these figures.
All the warnings of a spike in inflation in the March quarter pretty much came to nought.
Headline inflation came in at just 1.1 per cent over the year to March, well below market expectations.
Trimmed mean inflation slowed to record low at just 1.09 per cent, and the weighted median CPI also slowed slightly to just 1.29 per cent.
Underlying inflation has been running under the 2-3 per cent target since all the way back in 2015.
Non-tradables inflation, a proxy for domestic inflationary price pressures, came in at an underwhelming 0.2 per cent for the quarter.
The wrap
Overall there was a bit of inflation from petrol prices and Medicare in the March quarter, and alcohol and tobacco recorded relatively high inflation over the year...but there was not a whole lot else to speak of.
There will presumably be some stimulus-related spikes and some base effects over the next couple of quarters, but overall there are few inflationary pressures in evidence here.
In fact core measures of inflation are still running at record lows, so there's nothing here to suggest that interest rates won't be on hold until 2024.
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More detailed analysis from James Foster here.
