It's only one month of figures, but the monthly CPI indicator implied a decline of -0.4 per cent in January, slowing significantly more than expected.
Justin Smirk of Westpac Economics provided some neat analysis on the component parts:
Source: Westpac
Rents will continue to rise this year as tight lending standards remain in place, but airfares and travel costs will come down.
There's been a range of soft data releases over recent weeks for Australia, suggesting that the interest rate hikes have had the desired effect.
Inflation is falling quite quickly as supply factors ease, from food, clothing, and footwear, to transort, recreation, and communication.
Although flooding pushed good prices up late last year, inflation was otherwise moderating in 2022 and now the combination of rate hikes and supply factors will show inflation to have been transient.
Westpac's full release is here.
Bill Mitchell's most recent Australia analysis is here and here, with inflation set to fall, and unemployment to rise.
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CoreLogic reported housing prices as being flat in February, with a small rise of +0.3 per cent for Sydney.
Overall, Australia's housing prices were reported as -9 per cent from their highs, having increased by +29 per cent through the pandemic period.
Source: CoreLogic
CoreLogic reported listings as even further below their 5-year average for this time of year, despite the usual seasonal increase, and rapid rental price rises are now being driven by unit rents in Sydney (+17 per cent over the year).
