The Reserve Bank of Australia’s bid to drive down inflation through interest rate hikes looks to be working as the annual inflation rate fell in February to 6.8% – the slowest pace since June last year.
Among the key drivers behind this month’s CPI was new housing, up 9.9% compared with a year ago. Also on the march were power prices, up 17.2%, while petrol was up 5.8% – “barely a road bump compared to the 43.2% annual pace recorded last June”, our economics correspondent Peter Hannam notes.
