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Australia will release the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report on Wednesday, and it is expected to show inflation rose 3.6% year over year in December, slightly above the previous reading of 3.4%. The monthly CPI is foreseen at 0.7% after posting 0% in November. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will also release the Trimmed Mean CPI, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) favorite inflation gauge. The annual figure is expected to print at 3.2%, matching the previous reading, while on a monthly basis, the Trimmed Mean CPI is forecast at 0.2%, down from the 0.3% posted in the previous month. Data will be released one week ahead of the RBA monetary policy meeting, scheduled for February 2-3. The central bank last met in December, when policymakers decided to leave the Official Cash Rate (OCR) on hold at 3.6%. The monetary policy statement showed that the Board noted inflation has picked up more recently, and that data “suggest some signs of a more broadly based pick-up in inflation, part of which may be persistent and will bear close monitoring.” Ahead of the CPI release, the Australian Dollar (AUD) trades above 0.6900 against the US Dollar (USD), its highest since September 2024 What to expect from Australia’s inflation rate numbers? ABS data is expected to confirm what market analysts suspect: that the RBA’s next monetary policy move will be a rate hike. As previously noted, the ABS is forecast to report that the annual CPI rose by 3.6% in the year to December, higher than the 3.4% posted in November and above the RBA’s goal of keeping inflation between 2% and 3%. Resurgent inflationary pressures, coupled with a pretty solid labor market, boosted the odds of an interest rate hike in Australia coming up next. The ABS recently reported that the…

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Filed under: News - @ January 27, 2026 11:24 pm