Inflation expected to rise past 3%
Inflation is expected have risen above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s two to three per cent target range in the first months of 2014 but that alone won’t spark an interest rate rise.
The consumer price index (CPI), the key measure of inflation, is forecast to have risen by 0.8 per cent in the March quarter, for an annual rate of 3.2 per cent, an AAP survey of 12 economists shows.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the inflation figures on Wednesday.
The high headline inflation figure is unlikely to concern the Reserve Bank because it’s probably a one-off, National Australia Bank senior economist Spiros Papadopoulos said.
“For a central bank that has historically been quite hawkish and consistently talked up the inflation risks to the economy, the RBA’s forecasts suggest few inflation fears,” he said.