Australia’s inflation rate slowed less than expected in the March quarter as rents and education costs increased, dimming hopes the cost-of-living crunch was easing and lessening chances of a 2024 cut in official interest rates.
The consumer price index for the first three months of 2024 was 3.6% higher than a year earlier, slowing from the 4.1% annual pace in the December quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had tipped CPI growth would drop to 3.5%.
