So it’s goodbye to lower interest rates – to be honest, the RBA was always looking for an excuse not to cut

With quarterly inflation roughly double what economists and investors were expecting, the RBA has ‘an easy reason to ignore rising unemployment’, writes Greg Jericho. Photograph: Mark Baker/AP

Is there a release of economic data that can more quickly dash people’s hopes than inflation? Before Wednesday’s release of the September quarter CPI figures, there was a pretty good chance that on Melbourne Cup day the Reserve Bank of Australia would cut interest rates.

Now that hope is gone.