Inflation continues to fall in Australia

Australia’s inflation rate slows to 6% for second consecutive quarter Australia’s consumer price index increased by 6% on an annual basis in the second quarter, from 7% in the first quarter. This also marked a slowdown in inflation from the 33-year high of 7.8% seen in the fourth quarter of 2022. Market expectations had been for inflation to slow to 6.2%, from 7.0% in the previous period. According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), prices of insurance and financial services, as well as food and recreational and cultural activities saw the biggest increases in the second quarter. The trimmed average inflation, which is tracked by the Reserve Bank of Australia as a core measure of inflation, fell from 6.6% in the first quarter to 5.9% in the second quarter. The “trimmed average inflation” is the weighted average of the central 70% of the distribution of three-month price changes in all CPI components.