Inflation hits 3.5%, but one high number won't budge the Reserve Bank on interest rates

Shutterstock

Australia’s Consumer Price Index rose 1.3% in the three months to December, bringing inflation for the full 2021 year to 3.5%.

This is above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s medium-term target range of 2-3% inflation. It will excite speculation about the central bank lifting interest rates far sooner than 2024, as the bank’s governor Philip Lowe suggested was most likely in 2020.