Treasurer hits back as opposition slaps panic button

Inflation and jobless rates were much higher under the coalition government, Jim Chalmers says. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has attacked the coalition's economic record after the opposition raised the spectre of stagflation following a horror consumer price result.

Headline inflation soared to 3.2 per cent in the September quarter, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed on Wednesday, jumping out of the Reserve Bank's target band of two to three per cent.